SC mayor tells national publication 'who's going to read it' when social media posts on Muslims are questioned

Wednesday, June 6th 2018, 3:09 pm EDT
By Tanita Gaither, Digital Content Manager

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The mayor of Irmo, SC has garnered the attention of a national publication because of personal social media accounts that many are considering anti-Muslim.

Irmo Mayor Hardy King shared a post on June 4 that from a Facebook group called "America's Veterans are Loved" entitled "PERSPECTIVE." The post lists a number of global terrorist attacks and how the suspects were Muslim.

The posts were made on the mayor's personal Facebook page that includes other conservative-leaning posts. The June 4 post no longer appears on his page.

When asked by The Daily Beast, a popular online news website many consider to be left-leaning, King was unapologetic about the posts, saying his posts "did not merit public concern, commenting sarcastically 'like it's your business, or somebody's...'"

“I’m sure the article isn’t going to do any good anyway,” The Daily Beast quotes King as saying, “and I don’t know who’s going to read it here, and I’m sure it’s already biased in the first place. But that’s fine. That’s life, and that’s politics, and I’ll deal with that.”

We've reached out to Mayor King via email for further comment and have not yet heard back.

The mayor is a Republican and was elected to his position in 2011. The mayor, a local businessman who championed the city's parking ordinances, promoted a track record of fiscal conservatism during his campaign.

He is running for reelection in 2019, according to his website.