The conversation between council members took place in October 2021. However, the recordings were only made public on Sunday after they were uploaded to Reddit.
After audio recordings revealing racist comments were leaked, Joe Biden, US President, believes that three Los Angeles City Council members should resign. A spokesperson for the White House said Tuesday.
The Council President Nury Martnez, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon (and the Los Angeles county labor president Ron Herrera) have been under fire since Saturday, when a video of them making offendibly racist comments and demeaning comments about their colleagues was posted online.
Martinez declared Monday she would be on leave from council. However, Martinez did not resign as president. Herrera resigned Monday evening.
Multiple requests have been made for Cedillo or de Leon to resign.
“The President is happy to see that one person in that discussion has resigned,” Karine Jean-Pierre, White House spokeswoman, said Tuesday.
He believes that all of them should resign. The language used during that conversation was unacceptable and tolerable.
The conversation between council members took place in October 2021. However, the recordings were only made public on Sunday after they were uploaded to Reddit.
The four discussed maps that were proposed by the city’s redistricting committee as well as the November 2022 midterm election.
Martinez, in particular, made racist remarks about Black people and Jewish people.
She also made homophobic remarks about Councilmember Mike Bonin, a white, gay man, and his son who is Black.
De Leon and Cedillo responded with laughter and more jokes.
Jean-Pierre’s comments came the night before Biden departs for a four-day journey through the west US states, including stops in Los Angeles or Orange counties.
The goal of this trip is to get support in advance of the midterms.
