LGBTQ group calls on Trenton councilwoman to resign over attacks on mayor

• By Tom MacDonald/WHYY

A Trenton City Councilwoman is under fire for an obscenity-laced rant she unleashed on Mayor Reed Gusciora during a conference call over the weekend. Audio of the call was released by the mayor’s office after Councilwoman Robin Vaughn requested it be made public.

Vaughn went on a ten minute diatribe, dropping f-bombs and calling Gusciora a “pedophile.”  She also accused him of funding nonprofits that are not doing anything for the community.

The call devolved into a name-calling contest.

“You’re an idiot, you wouldn’t know,” said Gusciora before he got cut off.

“You are a big fat idiot, f—ing drug addict, pedophile, that’s what you are … you’re a pedophile … you need to get the f— out of office and get the f— out of Trenton,” Vaughn.

She also accused another city official of performing a sex act on Gusciora, the first openly gay mayor of Trenton.

The LGBTQ Victory Fund is calling on Vaughn to resign over her comments during the conference call.

At one point a councilman offered to buy Vaughn’s house if she loses the next election so she would be ineligible to serve in Trenton again.

The dispute also included social media tweets by Vaughn, including this one.

Trentonians, let's focus on Mayor @gusciora fueling of the grant monies to those "do nothing nonprofit organizations" run by his friends. Keep your eyes on the CDBG and ESG funding the City received from the CARES Act. This funding is to help the City with the COVID-19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/ncuasAYzOI

— Robin M Vaughn (@trentonwestward) May 3, 2020

“Trentonians, let’s focus on Mayor @gusciora fueling of the grant monies to those ‘do nothing nonprofit organizations’ run by his friends. Keep your eyes on the CDBG and ESG funding the City received from the CARES Act. This funding is to help the City with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The mayor issued a statement Monday standing by his conduct on the call.

“I do regret interacting with Robin Vaughn on Saturday’s COVID briefing call with Trenton City Council. She has had a history of causing disruptions at Council meetings and attacking other decent people, based on their religion or ethnicity, who want to move our City forward. She has also remained steadfast in her opposition to economic development or any other sign of progress for our City.”

“Vaughn has been relentless in her attacks of members of my Administration and regular City workers trying to do their jobs. She is in violation of a Court Order for her to refrain from such conduct. The prior pass given the Councilwoman for her anti-Semitic comments begs the question, ‘when is enough?’”

Vaughn did not return messages asking for comment on the incident, but did say on social media that there are many nonprofits being given money that aren’t doing anything to earn it.

She apologized in September for defending a colleague on council who used the phrase “Jew her down” during settlement negotiations in a lawsuit.

WHYY is the leading public media station serving the Philadelphia region, including Delaware, South Jersey and Pennsylvania. This story originally appeared on WHYY.org.