Beverly Whaling, mayor of Clay, West Virginia, has resigned over her comments on a racist Facebook post by a county employee that compared first lady Michelle Obama to an “ape in heels,” CNN reports.
The post in question came from Pamela Taylor, who worked as director of the Clay County Development Corporation. Taylor took to Facebook to express her excitement over Donald Trump’s supermodel wife, Melania Trump, becoming the new FLOTUS. “It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels,” Taylor reportedly wrote in the since-deleted post, according to a screenshot obtained by WSAZ.
Whaling commented on the post, writing, “Just made my day Pam.”
Taylor was removed from her position earlier this week, and now Whaling is out too, after Town Council members voted to accept her resignation in a brief meeting Tuesday, November 15. According to WSAZ, Clay Councilman Jason Hubbard told attendees at the meeting, “This post is an individual and isolated act. This kind of racial intolerance is not what this community is about.”
Whaling apologized Monday, November 14, in a statement to The Washington Post. “My comment was not intended to be racist at all,” she told the newspaper. “I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I’m not of any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!”
Taylor also issued an apology on her personal Facebook page, WSAZ reports. She told the local news station that she believes the incident has turned into a “hate crime against me,” and that she and her children have received death threats.
