“ It’s Not Mine.” Mayor Osbon Denies His Own Campaign Flyer While Supporters Shout Down A District One Citizen.
by Don Moniak*
August 21, 2023
Updated August 21 to add video clip of meeting
There were several intriguing and prominent moments at the Schofield Community Association’s (SCA) Mayoral Candidate Forum held at the Smith Hazel Center this past Thursday evening. But one exchange stood out above the rest.
The forum was held just five days prior to the runoff election between Teddy Milner (R) and incumbent Mayor Rick Osbon (R), to be held Tuesday August 22nd. All registered City of Aiken voters can cast their ballot.
Candidates first answered twelve questions prepared by SCA and submitted in advance to the candidates. Candidate Milner (R) was prepared for the meeting with written, researched answers, while Candidate Osbon (R) improvised.
Following the answers to SCA’s questions, the forum turned to the audience question-and-answer portion of the meeting.
The Campaign Flyer: It Was Not His Until it Was His.
The first question was directed to Mayor Rick Osbon and regarded a campaign flyer featuring his image, phone number, the signature “Rick,” his home address on the return stamp, and the required “Paid For by Rick Osbon for Mayor Committee.”
There was no reason to believe it was not his campaign’s flyer.
Mayor Osbon examined the flyer. His subsequent statements included;
- “That is not mine.”
- “ I’m telling you that’s not my flyer,”
- “Look at how blurry it is.”
- “I’m telling you that’s not me”
- “I’m telling you I didn’t send it out.”
Amidst his answers one of his supporters shouted “It’s a scam.”
Mayor Osbon supporters continued to shout over the proceedings, repeating “It’s not his.”
According to an Aiken Standard report, after the meeting Mayor Osbon privately admitted to “an Aiken Standard reporter” that the literature was from his campaign. The admission was reported on Page Five, two paragraphs from the bottom of the report (below).
Meeting Dynamics: If you see Something, Say Something.
City Council members Gail Diggs (D) and Ed Girardeau (R) were in the audience seated two chairs apart, with an Osbon supporter in between.
Earlier in the week Mr. Osbon had identified Mr. Girardeau as one of “twenty conservative Republicans” who had endorsed his reelection.
On August 17th, Ms. Diggs encouraged citizens to vote while posting a different Mayor Osbon campaign flyer on her Facebook page.
Both Councilmembers remained silent throughout the ruckus, which would have warranted a police summons at a Council meeting.
Gail Diggs said three times at City Council’s August 14th meeting: “If you see something, say something.“
Democrat Gail Diggs sat silently as the Republican Mayor tolerated his supporters shouting down a resident of her district.
Neither Ms. Diggs nor Mr. Girardeau appeared to examine the flyer as it passed a few rows in front of them; even after a citizen sitting two rows ahead stated “It says Osbon for Mayor.”
I wrote to Ms. Diggs via email the next day. I asked if Mayor Osbon had been asked to issue an apology to the audience and to a citizen from her district who had been misled and harangued by the Mayor’s supporters. I also wrote that, in this case, “Silence is Complicity.”
To her credit, Ms. Diggs replied. She wrote that she could not speak for the Mayor, but that she had apologized to her constituent.
I also emailed Mr. Osbon with questions about the flyer, prior to knowing he had privately admitted the flyer was his. He has not responded.
* Disclosure: Don Moniak is a member of the Schofield Community Association, which is open to all Aiken County residents. He does not represent the association nor write on its behalf.
Hooray! That liar is out!!!
Flyer liar, pants on fire!
Each time you lie, your profile grows
It looks just like Pinocchio’s
Maybe it was a Scrivener’s error.
You can’t trust the Mayor.
I have never sat through any meeting at any time and listened to someone lie repeatedly and distort reality so thoroughly. Do you have to sell your soul to be the Mayor of this little town?
This is the best transcript that can be made from video footage of the meeting:
Hostess: “I received one of your election flyers in the mail today…and the very first thing it said was “no woke”, and I was wondering what you meant by that?”
Mayor: “I did not send anything out like that”
Mayor: “I didn’t not send anything out that said no woke”
Hostess: “Well I’m not making it up…it came in my mailbox today,
I wouldn’t manufacture it”
(She hands him the flyer)
Mayor: “That’s not mine”
(said dismissively)
Mayor: “That’s not…has this been changed?”
Hostess: “It came in my mailbox today, I didn’t change it”
Room comment: “That’s not your flyer”
Mayor: “I mean look how blurry it is, that’s not my flyer”
Hostess: “Who do you think put this out?”
Mayor: “….I’m telling you that’s not my flyer.”
Hostess: “Well it has your picture on it?”
Room comment: “It’s a scam”
Room laughs
Someone leaves to get more flyers to support the Mayors claim
that this is not a real flyer.
Mayor: “I’ve never even used that before”
Mayor: “I never even seen that”
Mayor: “I’ve never used that before”
Host: “Maybe you can address the issue of wokeness?”
(Why didn’t he?)
Room comment: Could it not be possible that somebody is sending false information out”?
(Room agrees, many say yes)
Room question: “It says on here paid for by Osbon for Mayor , is that not you?”
Mayor: “I saw that, I’m telling you that’s not me”
Mayor: “I m telling you I didn’t send it out.”
Mayor: “I’m telling ya I did not send out that flyer”
The Mayor never addressed “wokeness”.
He never said that he’d look into the issue.
After the end of the meeting, in a private interview with the newspaper, he finally remembered that it was in fact his flyer.
Maybe, he’s ok with denying it in a meeting held on the Northside of Aiken, but not to his conservative base and his friends at the Aiken Standard?
When we got home from the meeting the Mayor’s “Not Woke” flyer was in our mailbox too…and all over town.
It was a very disconcerting meeting throughout.
People want to trust authority figures, and believe the best about others. Pathological liars are aware of this, and in this case, Osbon used that to turn the group against itself. A tactic that liars use to escape being cornered by the facts.
This was a very offensive repeated lie, which Osbon quickly recanted when the Northside audience left the room and the newspaper attempted to report Osbon’s denial to his conservative base.
Is Osbon “woke” or “not woke”, well that depends entirely on which audience he is lying to at the time.
Although a public apology is obviously required, this really was unforgivable. (Did the Farmers Market trees magically reappear after his last “heart felt” apology?).
I’m told the SCA had to give Osbon repeated assurances that the meeting would be a “safe space” and they were very respectful and courteous, as they always are. But, that didn’t stop Osbon from questioning the hostess’s integrity, repeatedly. Their kindness did not even slow him down.
The “woke” question was the most egregious lie, but there was an almost continuous stream of misinformation, twisted logic, false promises and senseless babble.
I certainly learned who our mayor really is last Thursday and I’ll not forget it.
Mr. Moniak has presented additional irrefutable evidence of these facts:
Incivility and dissembling are hallmarks of the Osbon administration and of a large number of his supporters.