LA City Council Member Kevin de León Faces Death Threats, REFUSES To Resign Weeks After Racist Recording Exposed
Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León is receiving death threats after he was heard on a recording where he and his fellow council members made a series of racist remarks, RadarOnline.com has learned.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the recording – which was taken in October 2021 – first surfaced in October of this year.
In the recording, then-LA City Council President Nury Martinez made a series of insensitive and racist remarks to de León and fellow city council member Gil Cedillo regarding the adopted Black son of council member Mike Bonin.
Although both Martinez and Cedillo subsequently resigned following the recording scandal, de León has refused to step down from his role on the city council.
Even more shocking are reports de León is now receiving death threats for his refusal to resign, with his team reportedly forced to hire extra security at certain events.
“The council member has received death threats,” said Pete Brown, de León’s spokesperson. “We’re actually hiring security to come to our tree lighting events.”
The animosity towards de León came to a head on Friday when the embattled councilman attempted to appear for a council meeting for the first time in 59 days.
After the meeting’s attendants started yelling about de León’s presence, the meeting went into a recess. When the meeting resumed, de León was nowhere to be seen.
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Then, later Friday evening, de León was confronted by a protestor named Jason Reedy at a holiday event. Footage of the confrontation showed de León grab Reedy before pushing the activist into a table. Both de León and Reedy have since filed battery reports against each other in connection to the violent incident.
De León has also come under fire for refusing to take responsibility for the remarks made in the recently surfaced recording of him, Martinez and Cedillo.
Instead of apologizing for his remarks – in which de León compared councilman Bonin’s adopted son to an “accessory” like a handbag – the embattled council member argued his comments made on the recording were not racist.
“I think it’s extremely offensive and it makes me feel 100 percent uncomfortable,” said Claudia Oliveira, the president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. “Who is he to determine that he wasn’t being racist? That’s clearly racism.”
De León’s spokesperson has defended the embattled city councilman, saying that despite the continuing protests against him and ongoing calls for his resignation, de León has continued to complete his duties as a council member.
“Ninety percent of the work that we do is specific to us, our council office,” said Brown “We work with departments. That work has continued throughout this situation.”
President Joe Biden and nearly every Democratic politician in California has called for de León to resign after his racist remarks were exposed earlier this year, but the councilman has vowed to stay on the LA city council until his term ends in December 2024.
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