This story has been updated.

Tucker, GA — In an old Reddit post, he published a photo of two women standing by a van and called them “dependappopotamuses” waiting to make a “weekly payment” on “rented rims” for a “1996 Eclipse.”

In a comment defending that post, he offered a definition of “dependappopotamus.”

“A dependappopotamus is a (usually large & in charge) woman who hangs out in bars close to military installations, looking to trap themselves a brand new solider and latch on for those benefits,” he wrote. “Young privates are perfect marks, and the added benefit is that they’re gone a lot in training or deployments, which gives dependappopotamuses in the wild freedom to bang their friends and spend her man’s money while he’s in training and/ or without access to his bank account or communications. The technique is passed down generationally, in trashy areas.”

The comments do not improve from there, and the original poster (known as OP in Reddit shorthand) was Robin Biro, who is now a Tucker Mayoral candidate. Biro is openly gay and running on a platform of inclusivity and passing a nondiscrimination ordinance that his opponent, Mayor Frank Auman, has declined to support. The election is on Nov. 2 and early voting ends Oct. 29.

Here are the photos showing Biro’s Reddit posts (the Tucker Observer has edited out all images of the women depicted in the posts): 

Biro, a former Army Ranger, apologized on Oct. 26 for his comments, saying, “Military humor is crass. I’m sorry. It was in poor taste.”

“I posted it in a military humor forum,” Biro said. “It got deleted by the moderator. I think they paid for opposition research to go find that. I don’t know how you would’ve found that on Reddit. Yeah, it’s military humor. It’s crass and in poor taste. Military humor often is.”

The age of the post is in dispute. Screenshots provided to Tucker Observer say the post and comments were made four years ago, but Biro said the post was made back in 2011 when he was in active duty. He said he’s no longer a part of the toxic macho environment that permeates the military, and that he’s not the same person he was then.

“The military environment is toxic. It was normalized to me then,” Biro said. “I made that post in 2011. The only thing I can say is it was the product of being in a very toxic military environment where that was the norm.”

Tucker Observer left a message with Mayor Auman seeking comment about the posts.

Auman’s supporters were quick to condemn Biro when the old posts appeared on a local Facebook group, but so were some Democrats likely to vote for him next Tuesday.

“To be clear, I’m a lifelong deep-blue Democrat, but he may have lost me on this one,” one commenter said. “He posted a response last night where he owned-up to the posts and essentially equated them to ‘locker room talk.’ He apologized, but his apology did nothing other than say, ‘I’m sorry, but…..’ and then he went on to bellyache about how he’s the victim of mud slinging political operatives and that he’s staying on the high-road. There were some excellent questions posted by his supporters asking for clarity on how he sees his comments as wrong, what he’s done to change and grow in those areas, and other insightful replies, but he deleted the entire thread.”

Biro has said he did not delete the Facebook thread. He did, however, delete his Reddit account after the posts came to light.

He said his account featured “mostly old cat pictures” but he deleted it because people were combing through his old posts and leaving comments.

In the unearthed Reddit thread, Biro claims credit for the photo in question.

“I took this myself when I was next door getting wings at lunch,” he wrote.

But Biro on Tuesday said he was taking credit for a meme that wasn’t his. He said he pulled the photo from an Army Ranger blog.

“That was me trying to take credit for a meme that was not original content,” Biro said. “It was a reposted meme, that I foolishly tried to take credit for. It’s embarrassing, I get it. It’s 10 years ago. I posted a meme, tried to take credit for it for karma, for Reddit karma. The post was deleted for not being funny.”

The Tucker Observer received another photo that appears to be a Reddit post, also purportedly under Biro’s account, that implies the same two women might also be prostitutes.

“Oh, I found an even better one of my lovely duo making their weekly payment on their rental rims,” the post says. “I think they may also be for rent themselves. I think her front butt ate those shorts.”

Biro did not take credit for or deny that he made that post, but noted that people have been making fake Facebook accounts under his name recently.

“There have been 13 fake accounts of me made over the last week and there’s a lot of misinformation, saying I can’t wait to pave over all of Tucker’s nature preserves …,” Biro said. “I didn’t post those things, those are fake troll accounts.”

While Biro has taken heat for the posts, one prominent Democratic official has come to his defense. John Jackson, chair of the DeKalb Democrats, says the unearthed posts show the desperation of the opposition.

“They are angry that folks are turning out for Robin Biro and Frank is on his way to losing, so in panic they paid money to dig up some opposition research,” Jackson said. “So, they are blowing 10 year post of crude military humor out of proportion and trying to make it a scandal. As a fellow military and combat veteran like Biro, I can tell you stupid humor is common, but it doesn’t have bearing on somebody’s ability to be a transformational leader. There are important issues to talk about in this election. There have been literal live incidents of hate – such as Auman’s associate pulling out a gun and shouting racial slurs at one of our volunteers …. This foolishness won’t stop the movement on the ground in Tucker. It’s really fake outrage from folks who are in panic mode.”

More information about voting in the Nov. 2 election: 

Editor’s note: Decaturish and the Tucker Observer have published an Elections Guide, a 76-page e-edition featuring Q&As with nearly every candidate running in our communities. To see it, click here. This special e-edition features candidates running for public office in Decatur, Avondale Estates, Atlanta City Council District 5, Clarkston Tucker and Stone Mountain.  There is a PDF version of this, which you can see by clicking here, but due to the format of this e-edition, we strongly encourage you to use the e-reader version.

All elections coverage can be found at Decaturishvotes.com and Tuckerobservervotes.com.  

Election Day is Nov. 2. Early voting will begin on Oct. 12 and will end on Oct. 29. The voter registration deadline was Oct. 4. To register to vote, click here.

To see a list of important dates in the 2021 election year, click here.

People who wish to vote in person will need to bring one of the following forms of identification, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office:

– Any valid state or federal government-issued photo ID, including a free ID Card issued by your county registrar’s office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)

– A Georgia Driver’s License, even if expired

– Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state

– Valid U.S. passport ID

– Valid U.S. military photo ID

– Valid tribal photo ID

Early voting begins Oct. 12 and ends Oct. 29. The hours for early voting are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will also be weekend early voting on Oct. 16, 17, 23 and 24.

Beginning Oct. 12, you can participate in early voting at the following locations: 

– Bessie Branham Recreation Center (2051 Delano Drive NE, Atlanta, GA 30317)

– Lynwood Recreation Center (3360 Osborne Road NE, Brookhaven, GA 30319)

– Berean Christian Church – Family Life Center (2197 Young Road, Stone Mountain, GA 30088)

– DeKalb Voter Registration & Elections Office (4380 Memorial Drive, Suite 300, Decatur, GA 30032)

– Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library (5234 LaVista Road, Tucker, GA 30084)

– Stonecrest Library (3123 Klondike Road, Stonecrest, GA 30038)

– County Line-Ellenwood Library (4331 River Road, Ellenwood, GA 30294)

– Dunwoody Library (5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road., Dunwoody, GA 30338)

The Tucker Observer is a new community news website owned by Decaturish.com. We provide locally sourced news about Tucker, Clarkston and Stone Mountain.

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