Auburn mayor to ‘hand the gavel’ over after sharing meme comparing Trump supporters to KKK
The mayor of Auburn is facing backlash and calls for his removal from office following posts and comments he made last week on Facebook, which appeared to compare supporters of President Donald Trump to the Ku Klux Klan amid criticism of the president’s response to the coronavirus.
Dr. Bill Kirby, the mayor of Placer County’s seat and a urologist, announced Monday evening that he intends to hand over the mayoral duties to a fellow council member, Auburn Journal reported.
Kirby allegedly shared a reposted meme last Thursday from his personal Facebook account. The image depicted a hooded KKK member and included the text: “Good news for Trump supporters is that most of them already have masks,” a reference to an increasing number of state and federal guidelines recommending the general public wear face coverings to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the deadly disease known as COVID-19.
Kirby shared the photo, adding his own comment simply saying, “True.”
What followed in the comment section were numerous heated, profanity-laden exchanges between Kirby and Facebook users, many of whom called the mayor’s remarks hate speech, screenshots show. The original post has since been either deleted or made private.
At least two Facebook groups criticizing the mayor, one public and one private, sprung up late last week after the post was made. The public group, sarcastically titled “William kirby, mayor of Auburn California fan club,” has posted screenshots of Kirby’s comments, some of which the mayor confirmed to a local newspaper that he did indeed write.
Kirby did not respond Monday to a message from The Sacramento Bee seeking comment, but in a Friday interview with the Auburn Journal, the mayor admitted to making some of the posts while defending his comments as being personal and having “nothing to do with (his) job.”
“(Facebook) is not a city site. It’s a personal site,” he told the Auburn Journal. “This has nothing to do with my job. I reposted it.” Kirby added that he “absolutely” believes Trump is a racist.
At a City Council meeting Monday evening, Kirby announced that he intends to “hand the gavel” to Councilman Daniel Berlant at the next meeting in two weeks, Auburn Journal reported.
In written statements provided to Fox 40 and CBS 13, Kirby wrote that his social media comments “were meant to be private and made out of frustration,” but that from his perspective as a doctor, he believes Trump “has put us all at risk” by his “lack of preparation” in dealing with the coronavirus.
National media outlets in recent days and weeks have chronicled the Trump administration’s delayed response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, where 23,000 have died as of midday Monday, more than any other nation, according to a data map maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The New York Times over the weekend published a damning investigation headlined, “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.”
In one of Kirby’s comments seen in a screenshot, the mayor allegedly wrote: “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” and that, “The same is more true of trump and his supporters today.”
Social media users began to call for Kirby’s ouster — for him to either step down, be removed from office or be voted out. Kirby’s term ends this November, and he is up for re-election.
Roseville pastor planned recall effort
A conservative pastor announced Sunday that he was planning a recall campaign against Kirby.
Pastor Doug Bird of Abundant Life Fellowship Church in Roseville told his congregation in a Facebook video sermon that he will lead a recall drive to oust Kirby before his term expires in November.
“Our goal is to have you recalled before the November election...,” said Bird, who noted in another Facebook post that he recently moved to Auburn. “You’re not going to serve out the rest of this term if we can get enough people to see what you’ve done.”
Bird, a conservative Republican who generated a massive online backlash against his church after he continued to hold in-person services despite Newsom’s shelter-in-place order, declared that “if a Republican did that they’d be run out of town.”
“Sir, you are so out of line you won’t serve out the rest of your term, I’m pretty sure.”
Bird’s church held a two-hour service for dozens of parishioners on Palm Sunday, but has since halted them.
Other city council members spoke out
Auburn’s vice mayor and a few other city council members told the Auburn Journal they did not approve of Kirby’s remarks, some condemning them as hate speech and others simply calling the controversy an unnecessary distraction from the COVID-19 crisis itself.
Councilwoman Cheryl Maki told the Auburn Journal: “It’s unfortunate our mayor is spending his time posting hate speech on Facebook when there are so many more important things at this time ... He promised not to do it anymore, and he continues to post hate speech. It’s divisive, unnecessary, and it’s harmful to our community.”
Placer County public officials as of Monday had reported 127 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases, of which 108 have come in South Placer (the Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln area), 10 have come in “mid” Placer (Auburn and the foothills) and the remaining nine have been reported in the east Placer and Tahoe areas, according to a recently established COVID-19 dashboard for the county.
Five people have died from the virus across Placer County as of Monday, including the first coronavirus death that was reported in California, a state where more than 700 have died, health officials say.
This story has been updated and the headline changed to reflect Monday night’s report that the mayor is handing over his duties.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 1:22 PM.
