LA Council member de León says he won’t resign in first interviews since release of leaked recording ignited scandal

LA City Council member Kevin de León said Wednesday he won’t step down as he made his first public remarks since the publication of a leaked recording that included racist and offensive remarks.

De León acknowledged in interviews with Univision and the CBS affiliate in LA that he had made a mistake but maintained his intention to keep his post despite the widespread calls for his resignation from the public and leading Democratic officials, including President Joe Biden.

„I failed in my leadership,“ he told CBS2. „I didn’t step up and intervene. I didn’t put a stop to it.“

The former powerful state lawmaker was caught on the recording in a discussion with former Council President Nury Martinez and fellow member Gil Cedillo and a union official in a discussion of efforts to manipulate district boundaries along racial lines — using deeply offensive language that exposed racial animosities in America’s second-largest city.

Martinez at one point used a racist word to refer to the Black son of a fellow council member. De León said that the council member, Mike Bonin, used his child as a prop like a designer handbag.

Martinez has since resigned and the council elected a new president Tuesday. De León said in the interview that he should’ve intervened when Martinez made the offensive remarks. He apologized for the handbag comment, calling it a „bad joke“ that was directed at Martinez. Nevertheless, he said that he profusely apologized to Bonin and his family in a voicemail following the leak.

Bonin dismissed de Leon’s explanation as de León’s “gaslighting of the highest order” in a statement after the release of the interviews.

“He describes cruel, dehumanizing remarks about a child as ‘flippant.’ He said he should have ‘intervened,’ as if he were a mere bystander to a racist conversation in which he played a central and ignominious role,” Bonin said.“No matter what he says today, his comments on that tape make clear he is unfit for office in this city.”

De León was asked in the Univision interview to address remarks by Martinez disparaging people from the southern state of Oaxaca, who tend to be more recent migrants to Southern California and often come from a variety of indigenous groups, the council member agreed the remarks were “horrible” and a “disgrace” and that he has a deep respect for the Oaxacan people.

“Those comments weren’t mine. Those comments don’t reflect my values, nor my principles as a human being and a man,” de León said. “Those horrible comments did not come from me.”

The leaked tapes have spun Los Angeles into chaos these past two weeks as protesters and elected officials, demanded the leaders step down from their roles.

De León and Cedillo still sit on the council, though they’ve been absent from recent meetings.

Cedillo’s term is about to end but de León could face a recall.

Elected officials at every level of government have called for resignations, saying they’re critical in order for the city to move forward and heal. The scandal has also drawn attention to the city’s redistricting process, which is largely controlled by council members. Much of the discussion in the leaked recording centered on ways to draw district lines to the benefit of Latino officials and the detriment of Black ones.