Roswell Mayor Jere Wood draws criticism for Facebook posting

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood talks with the press in a photo from 2013.  KENT D. JOHNSON / KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM

Credit: Kent D. Johnson / AJC

Credit: Kent D. Johnson / AJC

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood talks with the press in a photo from 2013.  KENT D. JOHNSON / KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood said he's not responsible for a questionable meme published on his Facebook page, and that he has taken it down.

The meme compares Hillary Clinton unfavorably to Melania Trump. It shows a photograph of a frowning Bill Clinton, and reads: “That moment when you realize you and Trump are the same age and he has Melania and you’re married to Hillary.”

A screen shot from Roswell Mayor Jere Wood’s Facebook page shows a meme that has brought criticism from some quarters.

icon to expand image

The meme was apparently taken down Wednesday, but not before it was criticized on other Facebook pages, including a page hosted by the Georgia Alliance for Social Justice. 

Wood, who is vacationing in the British Virgin Islands, was unavailable for a phone conversation, but said by text: “I did not post this share and I deleted it from my page.”

Later on Wednesday, several readers of Wood’s page captured the image and began peppering his page with them.

“Maybe on vacation you can think about why you are a such a sexist person,” Joyce Mulazzi wrote on his page, above the image.

RELATED: Video shows damage from flooding near controversial Roswell wall

Kelley Lemmings of Cartersville said, in an email, “It is so easy to hit the ‘share’ button. I admit I laugh at some that I shouldn’t. But when our elected leaders partake, it is disheartening. This is why I marched in January. Misogyny so openly on display by our leaders has to stop.”

Wood is in his fifth consecutive term as mayor of Roswell.

He said by text that he was on a sailboat and out of cellphone range when the item posted. It was also posted to his wife Claudia’s page, he wrote. “I have no idea how.”

OTHER ROSWELL NEWS: