Trenton, New Jersey—Sen. Cory Booker along with Garden State Equality, New Jersey's leading LGBTQ rights group are calling for the resignation of Trenton City Councilwoman Robin Vaughn after an explicit and homophobic laced conference call directed at Trenton's openly gay mayor on May 2.
The scheduled conference call, which was supposed to be a discussion about the coronavirus quickly went off the rails after Vaughn questioned Mayor Reed Gusciora' s funding for nonprofits.
She launched into a stream of curse words and personal insults after Gusciora challenged her to name one of the capital city's "do-nothing" organizations she has criticized on Facebook, reports The Trentonian.
"Why are you advocating for a nonprofit?" Vaughn said. "You should be advocating for the residents of this city."
"OK, Radioactive," Gusciora said, referencing this newspaper's nickname for the West Ward leader. "Name one Robin, come on."
Gusciora called Vaughn a "child" and suggested she acted like a 4-year-old.
"You’re a child and you’re incompetent. And you know it," Vaughn fired back. "That’s why you’re coming after me."
Gusciora labeled Vaughn an "idiot" and tried to get officials to end the call.
But Vaughn exploded, shouting insults for several minutes as she and Harrison became entangled in trading barbs when the East Ward legislator stood up for the mayor.
As Harrison urged council leadership to get control of the meeting, Vaughn laid into Gusciora, calling him a "motherf***king drug addict pedophile. ... You need to get the f**k out of office and get the f**k out of Trenton."
The Trentonian has published audio of the full conference call. The exchange between Vaughn and Gusciora begins at the 20 minute mark. At one point during the call, Vaughn appears to settle down as Council President Kathy McBride attempts to take control of the call. She then flares up again by attacking Councilman Joe Harrison's family.
"Why don’t you go find your father, Joe Harrison? Go find your father, you village idiot," she says.
"Be careful what you say, ugly," Harrison responds.
"Shut the f**k up you old dumba**. Why don’t you go educate yourself?"
Vaughn continues getting personal, telling Harrison to “go ask your whore-a** mom who your father is? Everybody in this city knows who my father is, motherf**ker. And my brother.
"We don’t have b**ch-ass men in my family. We don’t have b**ch-ass men like you and Reed Gusciora in my family. We got real men in my family. B**ch-a**es. Nothing but a bunch of women. That’s all you are. B**ches. That’s right. Running around here with young men. Reed ain’t nothing but an old pedophile. B**ch-ass motherf**kin’ mayor."
Sen. Cory Booker called for Vaughn's resignation over the weekend in a statement to The New Jersey Globe.
"From her previous defense of anti-Semitic rhetoric in 2019, to her hateful words used against the LGBTQ community this weekend, Councilwoman Vaughn has shown a pattern of intolerance that has no place on the Trenton City Council," Booker said. The sentiments she expressed are contrary to our values as New Jerseyans and as Americans.
The people of Trenton deserve better, which is why I'm calling on Councilwoman Vaughn to step down immediately."
Christian Fuscarino, Executive Director of Garden State Equality, reacted to Vaughn's homophobic tirade in a statement to The Trentonian on Sunday.
"Councilwoman Vaughn is unfit to serve the people of Trenton," said Fuscarino.
"There's no need to parse words here: for her hateful anti-LGBTQ language and defending the anti-Semitic slurs of others, she must resign. Her words are an attack on the diversity of Trenton's community, the city's elected leadership, and our state as a whole. Any decent-minded New Jerseyan who believes in the success and future of our state's capital should denounce this hateful rhetoric and call for her to step down immediately.”
Vaughn attempted to defend herself on Twitter:
As of Tuesday morning, no announcement has been made regarding Vaughn's termination of her seat on Trenton's City Council.