Updated 08/01/2009 05:29 PM
Quinn Accepts Businessman's Apology Over Slur
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Saturday she accepted an apology from a Manhattan business owner who was
caught making derogatory comments about her at a William Thompson mayoral campaign event.
Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, the owner of the Greenwich Village teashop Tea and Sympathy, was caught on an audio recording saying about the speaker, "She's a whore and you can quote me on that.... I'll call her a whore, and I'll drop my trousers and she can kiss my a--."
The tape was recorded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign.
The mayor has come to Quinn's defense, since Thompson was not heard on the recording denouncing the remarks.
Quinn hoped it will teach New Yorkers an important lesson.
"People have every right to have whatever opinion they want about any elected official or about the job I'm doing," said Quinn. "All I would ask is for people to think about the words they use and that all of us, myself included, to take every step they can to not speak of another that is derogatory towards them or to a group that they may be a member of."
Thompson's campaign released a statement calling the comments inappropriate and offensive.