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Councilwoman heard going off on rant against Trenton mayor during COVID-19 conference call
FOX 29's Jeff Cole reports.
TRENTON, N.J. - The Saturday phone call was between Trenton’s mayor and members of the city council to talk about the spread of COVID-19 in the capital city and efforts to combat it turned into a war of words between Mayor Reed Gusciora and West Ward Councilwoman Robin Vaughn.
"You’re a child. You’re a child," Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora is heard saying.
"Oh, I’m a child? You’re a child and you’re incompetent and you know it that’s why you’re coming after me, but you’re not going to win," Councilwoman Robin Vaughn said.
The mayor says the angry words grew out of a claim by Vaughn that groups the city was funding to battle the virus were “do nothing nonprofits." He’s heard on the recording, released by his office, challenging the councilwoman to name one of the groups and the call turned ugly.
"You are an idiot. You’re an idiot," the mayor said.
"You’re a big fat motherf---ing drug addict pedophile that's what you are," Vaughn is heard saying in the recording.
"It’s hurtful and it’s vile and it has no place in public decorum. It doesn’t matter what your sexual orientation, race or religion is," Mayor Gusciora told FOX 29's Jeff Cole Monday.
Gusciora is openly gay.
There was no answer at Councilwoman Vaughn’s home and her office did not respond to an email for comment.
The argument also drew East Ward Councilman Joseph Harrison into the fray. He calls Vaughn “ugly” while she suggests he perform a sex act on the mayor. On the phone, Harrison said he was outraged but declined an on camera interview.
"I wasn’t expecting a homophobic rant nor an attack on a councilman, his mother, his father. It’s beyond decency or public decorum," Mayor Gusciora said.
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