An elected town council member in Strasburg, Va., who also is chairman of the 6th Congressional District’s Republican Committee admitted this week that he posted, then removed, a sexually offensive meme targeted at Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), hours after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden chose her as his running mate.
John Massoud told the Strasburg mayor and town manager he posted the meme Tuesday night, then took it down Wednesday morning after he “received some flak.” By that time, several residents had copied the image and had begun discussing it on a closed 600-member Facebook group, Shenandoah Indivisible.
The posting made a crude reference to her relationship with Willie Brown, a prominent California Democrat who served as San Francisco mayor and speaker of the State Assembly. He and Harris dated in the 1990s, when she was single and he was separated from his wife.
Massoud, who did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post, said in a newsletter he sends to local Republicans that he, “like many millions of Americans,” posted a meme on social media.
“Virtue signalers in the Democratic party have taken to calling me a sexist and a racist because I referred to Senator Harris using politically incorrect language . . . While reasonable people can discuss the colorful language used — facts are facts.”
He also told Strasburg Mayor Brandy Boies that he posted the meme, the mayor said.
“He did acknowledge the word used in the post is offensive to some,” Boies said in an interview Thursday.
Boies, who has been in office since July 1, said she is still discussing with other council members whether to take action.
That is also the route taken by the Luray Town Council earlier this week.
That Shenandoah Valley town, about 35 miles south of Strasburg, censured Mayor Barry Presgraves for posting a meme on his Facebook page suggesting that Biden would choose “Aunt Jemima” for his running mate. That character of a Civil War-era “mammy” on a pancake box is seen by many as disrespectful and demeaning of Black women.
Presgraves apologized for the post at the Luray council meeting Monday, days after telling local reporters he thought it was humorous and did not plan to apologize.
Massoud, who is vice president of Arlington’s Blue Top taxi service and was an unsuccessful candidate against ex-Del. Bob Brink for a House of Delegates seat from Arlington in 1997 and 1999, moved to the Shenandoah Valley about 10 years ago. He also ran unsuccessfully for a county seat there in 2015. He was elected to the Strasburg Town Council in 2018.
He was elected to the party post in July and told a friend on Facebook: “My job is not to unify the party. Good candidates like the ones mentioned above are what unifies us . . . My job is to get turnout up. And to cut back on the vitriol.”