Los Angeles councilman will not resign amid audio scandal and scuffle with protester

Days after video of a scuffle with an activist surfaced, and months after racist remarks on tape went viral, Los Angeles councilman Kevin de León tells CNN he’ll stay on the town council and is attending a scheduled assembly later Tuesday.

The councilman has defied calls for for his resignation and attended final week’s assembly, amid vociferous protests, “to get again to work,” he instructed CNN’s Kate Bolduan. The final two months he mentioned he’s been reflecting in addition to speaking with folks within the Black group and mentioned the majority of his work is with division leaders and never simply at conferences.

“Tens of thousands and thousands of People go to work each single day with of us that they don’t like,” he reasoned. “ what they do each morning? They rise up they usually go to work,” de León mentioned.

Requires de León’s resignation have continued since October, when audio of a year-old dialog between de Léon and fellow council members was posted anonymously on Reddit and obtained by the Los Angeles Instances. A lot of the dialog targeted on maps proposed by the town’s redistricting fee and the council members’ frustration with them, however it additionally featured racist remarks a couple of fellow council member’s Black son and about Oaxacans. CNN was not in a position to confirm the audio recording.

“I shouldn’t have mentioned what I mentioned,” de León mentioned on Tuesday, clarifying his remarks evaluating White colleague Mike Bonin’s Black baby to a designer purse. “I used to be criticizing, really, councilwoman Nury Martinez for her penchant for luxurious purses … and once more, I shouldn’t have mentioned that,” de León mentioned. The councilman additionally mentioned he has since apologized to Bonin and his household.

Then, on Friday, a video surfaced on-line of him engaged in a bodily altercation with a group activist throughout a vacation occasion. De León mentioned he was performing in self-defense, although an legal professional for an area organizer concerned within the scuffle says the councilman initiated the contact.

De León pointed to his physique of labor, together with his work on environmental points and advocacy on behalf of undocumented immigrants.

“That’s who I’m, and people are my values, these are my rules, that’s not the one that of us have been describing,” he mentioned.