The Republican Party headquarters in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was firebombed overnight, resulting in major smoke and fire damage. Somebody threw a bottle of flammable liquid through a front window of the Orange County Republican headquarters , setting supplies and furniture ablaze, Hillsborough police said. The side of an adjacent building was also spray painted with a swastika and the words “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else.”
Damage estimates were not immediately available but Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the state GOP, said, “The office itself is a total loss.” He called the bombing “political terrorism” and said “the only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been.”
Violence has broken out at a large number of Trump rallies this year — the vast majority of which involved anti-Trump protesters assaulting Trump supporters.
N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory Sunday called the weekend firebombing of the GOP headquarters “an attack on our democracy.”
“The firebombing of a local political headquarters in Orange County is clearly an attack on our democracy,” McCrory said in a statement. “Violence has no place in our society – but especially in our elections … I will use every resource as governor to assist local authorities in this investigation.”
Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said, “This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety … and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation.”
Hillsborough police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were continuing to investigate. The incident took place in Orange County, home of the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill.
The county is overwhelmingly Democratic. Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans 5-1.
While Democrats condemned the bombing, Trump tweeted: “Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning @NCGOP.”
Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning @NCGOP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
[…]
But Clinton’s campaign tweeted, “The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe.”
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Patsy Keever called the bombing “outrageous.”
“The North Carolina Democratic Party strongly condemns this attack,” she said. “Violence has no place in our political system. … Our deepest sympathies are with everyone at the North Carolina Republican Party.”
Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper tweeted, “Violence has no place in our democracy and can not be tolerated. The culprits must be caught and brought to justice.”
The firebombing is the latest in a string of attacks on the GOP or Donald Trump campaign in recent days.
Outside a Trump rally in Bangor, Maine, Saturday, more than 20 cars were vandalized with white spray paint.
And on Friday, someone busted out the front windshield and top window of a Trump/Pence vehicle sitting at the Iowa campaign headquarters.
Via Twitchy:
Someone busted front windshield of Trump-Pence vehicle at Iowa campaign HQ. Staffs thinks happened Friday. pic.twitter.com/dtW1ABfepr
— Dave Price (@idaveprice) October 16, 2016
On October 1, Donald Trump’s new Washington hotel was vandalized with spray-painted messages of “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice No Peace” on its front entrance.
On October 3, a Trump for President billboard in Phoenix, Arizona, was defaced with swastikas.
Republican Party leaders in Howard County, Maryland, say that the streak of vandalized Trump signs throughout the area is “unprecedented.”
Large Trump signs have been burned, ripped and vandalized throughout the county, a streak local party leaders and elected officials said is indicative of an unprecedented divisive and polarizing political climate.
“The destruction has been somewhat ugly,” said Bates on Wednesday, who represents District 9 in Howard and Carroll counties. “We have a very divided electorate this year, but people have the right to express their opinions. They do not have a right to destroy things.”
There are also reports of Trump/Pence signs being vandalized in central Oregon, where they’re selling strong, and in Wisconsin, and Carlsbad, California. In Maui, Hawaii, vandals not only defaced a woman’s Trump/Pence signs, they egged her home, as well.
It’s probably safe to say that Trump signs are being vandalized or stolen in unprecedented numbers throughout all America. Because that’s how peaceful progressives roll.
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