Police investigate firebombing attack of Republican HQ in North Carolina
THE US presidential race has been rocked by the firebombing of a Republican Party office in North Carolina.
A LOCAL Republican Party office in North Carolina has been firebombed while an adjacent building was vandalised with an anti-GOP slogan and swastika referring to “Nazi Republicans”, according to local authorities.
A news release from the town of Hillsborough said someone threw a bottle filled with flammable liquid through the window of the Orange County Republican Party headquarters on Saturday night local time.
Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the state GOP, slammed the bombing as an act of “political terrorism”, according to The Charlotte Observer.
The substance ignited and damaged furniture and the interior before burning out.
The news release says an adjacent building was spray-painted with the words: “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.”
Mr Woodhouse said no one was injured, but a security alert is being sent to party offices around the state.
On Sunday afternoon, the walls of the multi-room office were covered in black char, and a couch against one wall had been burned down to its springs.
Shattered glass covered the floor, and melted campaign yard signs showed warped lettering. The graffiti had been covered in paint by late afternoon.
Another business owner discovered the damage on Sunday morning. Local police are investigating alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Woodhouse said that people sometimes work after-hours, and he felt lucky that no one was there at the time.
“They are working around the clock. It is a miracle that nobody was killed,” he said in a phone interview.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, tweeted:
The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 16, 2016
Tom Stevens, the mayor of the town about 64km northwest of Raleigh, condemned the act in a statement.
“This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalising property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety via fire, and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation,” Stevens, a Democrat, said in a news release.
Rev. William J. Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, also condemned the act.
Barber told the Associated Press on Sunday: “While vigorous debate on issues is acceptable, we in the NAACP denounce any kind of violence that is perpetrated toward our citizens or any political party.”
Hillsborough is the county seat of Orange County, which also includes much of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina campus.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin in the county that picked President Barack Obama by a lopsided margin in the 2012 election.
The GOP office is located at a retail complex along the interstate several kilometres from the town’s historic square.
DONALD TRUMP TRASHES SNL ‘HIT JOB’
TO some, last week’s second presidential debate felt like a comedy sketch.
So it was no surprise Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon suited up again as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the US comedy institution.
McKinnon and Baldwin, who is brilliant as Trump, again skewered last week’s second US presidential debate, which they coined the “second and worst presidential debate ever”.
(Saturday Night Live writers later confirmed the real debate didn’t need a lot of work to be turned into a comedy sketch.)
After two SNL performers opened the show as the debate’s two moderators, Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz, “Trump” and “Clinton” took to the stage, introduced as: “Republican nominee Donald Trump and — can we say this yet? — President Hillary Clinton.”
The hilarious sketch featured all of the debate’s highlights: a sharklike “Trump” stalking “Clinton” around the stage, Clinton’s zingers, and everybody’s debate hero, audience member, Ken Bone.
Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
There was, of course, more references to last week’s Trump, “p***y” tape scandal.
Asked if there was anything she liked about Trump, McKinnon’s Clinton said, “I do like how generous he is,” she replied. “Just last Friday he handed me this election.”
Donald Trump, however, was not amused. The Republican presidential candidate ripped Baldwin in a tweet overnight, bashing Baldwin’s impression of him.
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
He also accused SNL of doing a “hit job” on him in its parody of the contentious debate, and claimed the media is rigging the election. “Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me,” Trump wrote. “Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!”
He later added, “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places — SAD.”
Baldwin has been portraying Trump since the start of SNL’s 42nd season, which debuted three weeks ago.
Trump’s bashing of the show is unusual for a presidential candidate.
In 2008, when Tina Fey was playing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in a series of sketches, Palin may have not been pleased, but she did agree to do a cameo before the election.
Trump hosted Saturday Night Live last November to protests and controversy.
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