LOS ANGELES (KNX) – In an interview with Noticiero Univision anchor León Krauze on Wednesday, Councilman Kevin de León said he left Councilman Mike Bonin—whose 2-year-old Black son was the target of that leaked recorded conversation- a voicemail.
On Thursday, Bonin confirmed to KNX News he got that voicemail.
“When he left a message, he said he apologized,” he explained. “He said ‘families are not fair game even though we disagree’, and said he should’ve intervened and stopped a conversation that got out of hand, sort of like yesterday. Both the message and what he said yesterday were pretty inadequate and showed he really didn’t understand the gravity of what was going on.”
Bonin, who said he has not spoked with de León or Councilmember Gil Cedillo following the leaked recording, also touched on de León referring to his comments about Bonin’s son as “flippant.”
“A comment about a young boy that was cruel and dehumanizing and harmful as part of a racist conversation mocking this child – my son – he referred to that comment as flippant,” he said. “It was a hell of a lot worse than ‘flippant.’ And then his comment about he wishes he intervened…he makes it sounds as if he was a bystander to this conversation. This was a long, freewheeling conversation about a number of different things, but primarily about manifesting and coordinating anti-black racism throughout the redistricting process in Los Angeles and he was not a bystander. He was an active participant in that conversation.”
When asked why he hasn’t called de León or Cedillo personally, Bonin said he wasn’t ready for that conversation.
“My family is deeply wounded and has been attacked,” he said. “My son, my little boy has been attacked. I’m not quite ready for that conversation with them and as I’ve said publicly and I said on the floor of the council the other day, I’m not the one they really need to apologize to. The person they need to apologize to is too young to understand what’s going on. So, 10, 12 years from now they can try to apologize to my son. But in the meantime, it’s not my prerogative to grant forgiveness to an attack on a little boy.”
Bonin added that there is a chance for de León and Cedillo to redeem themselves, but they first need to resign.
“There is certainly a path to redemption, and I wish that for everybody but that path doesn’t begin at City Hall,” he said. “First thing they need to do is resign.”
Listen to the full interview in the audio above.
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