FACEBOOK:
“Gorilla face Michelle, can’t disagree with that. The woman is not attractive except to monkey man Barack. Check out them ears. LOL”
SALON: Airway Heights, WA, Mayor Patrick Rushing refuses to resign
“If they’re offended I apologize. It was not meant to be offensive to anybody.”
The Airway Heights City Council unanimously asked Rushing to step down as mayor of the small town but Rushing has refused. During a meeting on Monday, Mayor Rushing cited his right to free speech as an American and said he was working to “put this behind him.”
“I made a mistake. I owned up to my mistake,” Rushing said of his offensive Facebook post before adding, but “if I do resign that’s admitting I’m a racist and I’m not.” He went on, “My entire life, race has never been an issue.”
According to Rushing, the comments were little more than “just playful back and forth banter that my friends and I do.” But the Inlander has collected more than 75 examples of Rushing’s “playful” banter on Facebook that appear racially tinged, including images supporting the Confederate flag, labeling Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “the most racist individuals in American history,” attacking President Obama as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and suggesting that both President Obama and Michelle Obama should hang for treason.
Rushing still has two years left in his term.