LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas city councilwoman is facing a recall effort and calls for her to be removed as mayor pro tem over racially divisive comments she reportedly made at a Republican convention.
Councilwoman Michele Fiore, who is white, refused Thursday to disclose what she said but the Clark County Republican Party issued a statement condemning what it called “racially charged” and ”irresponsible” comments Fiore made at the party’s convention last weekend.
Clark County GOP chief of staff Richard MacLean told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he did not hear the comments firsthand but the party received more than 100 calls about them, including from Republicans in attendance and GOP lawmakers who were not there.
MacLean said those who attended recounted hearing Fiore making comments supportive of law enforcement and criticizing affirmative action, in which she used an expletive to describe a scenario in which she lost her job to a black person.
Fiore apologized at a Thursday press conference to anyone who was offended but she said her comments were being portrayed inaccurately. She declined to describe or repeat her comments.
“Ms. Fiore’s remarks were clearly inappropriate and ran counter to the thoughtful remarks of every other speaker and counter to the beliefs of the Clark County Republican Party,” the party said.
MacLean said the Clark County GOP did not record her remarks or the convention. The state Republican Party said it would investigate.
Councilman Cedric Crear, the only black member of the city council, sent a letter to Mayor Carolyn Goodman on Thursday calling Fiore’s comments “racist and inflammatory” and asking for Fiore to be demoted as mayor pro tem.
Crear said multiple witnesses recounted Fiore saying at the convention “I am a white woman and I should not lose my job because of their black asses.”
Two attendees gave a similar recounting of Fiore’s comments to the the Review-Journal.
Crear also told the mayor he took offense at comments Fiore made during a June 3 council meeting about protests over George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis.
“Your First Amendment right doesn’t include looting, hurting our police, shooting our police, beating white people up, or anyone else,” Fiore said.
Crear called those comments “beyond irresponsible” and “biased.”
In a statement on twitter, the mayor said she was taking Crear’s letter seriously and considering all the information.
Fiore on Thursday said Crear’s statements were false but she declined to say what was false about them. Regarding her comments made at the convention, the New York-born Fiore said, “Sometimes I can get a little Brooklyn when unscripted but I never, ever want to portray or have anyone believe that there is a racist bone in my body.”
The city clerk’s office received a notice of intent Thursday from a group called “Expel Michele” that it planned to circulate a recall petition. The group has until Sept. 9 to collect more than 1,900 signatures for the petition.
Fiore said of the recall effort, “I think they’re bored but it’s America so bring it.”
Fiore is known for making controversial statements and posing with guns in a custom calendar and on a family Christmas card,
She defended the Confederate Flag in a 2015 campaign email and that same year, while serving as a state lawmaker, she was twice removed from a GOP leadership position after blaming reports that the IRS had filed hundreds of thousands of dollars in liens against her on Republican consultants conspiring against her.
An ardent gun rights supporter, she faced criticism for telling The New York Times in a 2015 interview about her bill to allow guns on college campuses that she wondered how many “hot little girls” would be sexually assaulted if they had a gun.
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