County commissioner responds to alleged sexist, racist posts

By Hannah Mackenzie

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    HENDERSON COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — A Henderson County woman is calling for the resignation of one elected official following posts he shared on social media.

Multiple viewers reached out to the WLOS newsroom citing concerns over Henderson County Commissioner Daniel Andreotta’s Facebook page.

“We cannot have leaders who are not called out and punished punished for what they have done,” Gayle Kemp said.

One viewer sent News 13 a screenshot of a meme Andreotta posted. It reads: “Two ways to make a slave: work him without pay or pay him without work.” Andreotta shared the post, writing ‘TRUTH alongside a firework emoji.

“The first thing I always think when I see things like that is that somebody thinks that about my Black grandson,” Kemp said. “The second thing I think is, ‘I’m going to call him out on that’ so I did, and he blocked me.”

Kemp wants the commissioner held accountable for a post she said is racist. She’s now calling for his resignation.

“He has no business pretending to be a leader in this county,” Kemp said. “I am so angry about that that anybody in 2022 who allegedly is a leader doesn’t have the common sense to say, ‘Maybe, I better not post this, maybe I should think about this before I do that.’”

Andreotta has since deleted the post, but another meme he shared – this one of a female football referee – has also caught flak.

“This man is allegedly a professional,” Kemp said. “He is a county commissioner, an elected official, and he can make remarks about women like that? What!?”

Over the phone, Andreotta responded to claims the post was racist.

“That label is a cutting label that I think is often used to silence someone who has a view that someone else doesn’t like or is used to discredit them,” Andreotta said. “It’s terrible to throw that word around loosely like that.”

Despite deleting the post, he stands behind the political message.

“Stalin [and] Mao enslaved more people than anyone, and it was under the umbrella of communism; today China still does,” Andreotta said. “I also don’t want to see people, especially the younger generations, without realizing it, become trapped in a mindset of dependency that kills their initiative, that kills their drive, that takes away their opportunity to find out what their potential is, what they can do and accomplish, what they can become.”

In response to the referee meme, Andreotta said:

“There’s this thing in life called a sense of humor there’s called things that are funny and there’s called things to some people who understand draw humor from it. If we can’t laugh at ourselves and each other lovingly and respectfully and politely, then it’s going to be a gloomy world.”

As of Wednesday night, Andreotta’s Facebook page is now private.

Kemp said she plans to address the commissioner at the next Henderson County commissioner’s meeting on Sept. 21 and hopes others will join.

Andreotta’s posts come on the heels of David Nicholson’s resignation. The former executive director of the North Carolina Apple Festival – in Henderson County – resigned over a comment he made on Facebook regarding Juneteenth.

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