A Democratic state lawmaker from East Harlem has been sanctioned for \u201csexually explicit remarks\u201d he gave on the chamber floor earlier in the year, Speaker Carl Heastie announced Friday.<\/p>\n
Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs received a warning letter and was ordered to undergo counseling \u201cto address the use of sexually explicit remarks and the use of professional communication,\u201d Heastie\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The statement in question came during a speech Gibbs gave in May after the death of former Rep. Charlie Rangel.<\/p>\n
Gibbs said on the floor that his late mother was enamored with both Rangel and Rangel’s predecessor, Adam Clayton Powell Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother was a big fan of Adam Clayton Powell, the congressmember, and she would tell me often that Adam Powell made her moist,\u201d Gibbs said, according to an official transcript. \u201cAnd then when Charlie won the seat \u2014 had the seat, she said Charlie made her wetter. I don’t know what that means, but that’s the way she felt about Charlie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibbs said in an interview that he didn\u2019t mean to offend anybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that in Albany \u2013 it\u2019s robotic there. I have different language, I don\u2019t talk their language,\u201d he said. \u201cIn my community, this is how we speak and talk to each other \u2013 and my mother would have said the same thing to you if she was alive today.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his mother was a \u201ccelebrated cocaine addict\u201d and that something about Rangel \u201cput her head over heels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state Assembly\u2019s ethics committee determined that Gibbs violated the chamber\u2019s anti-harassment policy.<\/p>\n