LA Councilman Mike Bonin tests positive for COVID-19 after attending packed council meeting

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin has tested positive for COVID-19, it was announced Wednesday. 

His diagnosis comes while he is in the process of tending to his family after a scandal erupted days after fellow councilmembers were heard making racist comments about his two-year-old son in a leaked audio recording. 

Bonin said he tested positive Tuesday night, just hours after he spoke inside a packed City Hall. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• LA City Council scandal: Nury Martinez announces leave of absence
• Protesters disrupt LA City Council meeting amid racism scandal
• Nury Martinez's racist remarks highlight how far LA race relations have to go
• Nury Martinez resigns as LA City Council president following backlash over racist comments

He attempted to take part in Wednesdays' council meeting remotely, but the council had to adjourn the meeting due to protest. 

During Tuesday's council meeting, Bonin delivered an emotional 12-minute speech, fighting back tears as he blasted the comments made during the recorded conversation aimed at his Black adopted son and other ethnic groups in the city.

"My husband and I are both raw and angry and heartbroken and sick for our family and for Los Angeles," Bonin said. "And as an Angeleno, like most Angelenos, I am reeling from the revelations of what these people said. Trusted servants who voiced hate and bile. ... These people stabbed us and shot us and cut the spirit of Los Angeles. It gave a beatdown to the heart and the soul of the city. But before anything else in the world, I'm a dad ... who loves his son in ways that words cannot capture. And I take a lot of hits, and I know I practically invite a bunch of them. But my son? Man, that makes my soul bleed and it makes by temper burn."

Since the comments were leaked over the weekend, Nury Martinez resigned from her position as President and took a leave of absence from the council. There are ongoing calls from the public, council members and even President Biden for the Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo, who all took part in the October 2021 conversation, to resign. 

It is unknown if any other council member or attendee of Tuesday's meeting also tested positive.