CA Mayor Resigns After Saying Trump Supporters Are Like the KKK

Mayor William Kirby of Auburn, California will be looking for a new job now that he’s announced his resignation from office. Kirby got himself in hot water with Auburn residents this week when he posted messages to social media that compared supporters of President Trump to members of the racist group the Ku Klux Klan. Kirby found himself under attack from residents during a virtual city council meeting, and while he attempted to show remorse for his poor judgement, he acknowledged that he was no longer the man to lead the city going forward.

“I spent 40 years dedicating my life to serving the community of Auburn as a physician and through my volunteer efforts. Am I perfect? No. We’re all a little flawed,” Kirby said, admitting to the city council that he was wrong to write the posts.

One of those posts proved particularly unpopular with Auburn residents. In it, Kirby posted a photo of a KKK hood which came complete with the caption: “Good news for Trump supporters is that most of them already have masks.”

Kirby said on social media that Trump had frustrated him with the lack of personal protective equipment coming from the federal government.

“This president,” he wrote, “has put us all at risk.”

Kirby’s KKK post may or may not have been enough to turn the citizenry against him, but he eliminated any doubt about it when he began arguing with supporters of the president in the comment section below his Facebook post. In those comments, Kirby degenerated from a responsible elected official to an angry internet troll.

“If Hitler and everyone who supported him was removed from the face of the earth in 1939 the world would be a much better place,” he wrote at one point. “The same is more true of Trump and his supporters today.”

FOX 40 in Sacramento reported that several angry voicemails were played at the council meeting.

“These comments are hateful, degrading, bigoted and more consistent with the mentality of a 15-year-old,” one resident said.

“It is extremely disappointing and I believe that he should be removed,” another said.

City Councilwoman Cheryl Maki was unimpressed with what she heard from Kirby.

“This is how I feel,” she said. “I abhor the things that he has said and done and I did not hear an apology from him tonight.”

Kirby announced that he would step down as mayor at the next city council meeting on April 27. To which we can only say: Good riddance.