Someone opened fire on the Republican Party headquarters in Volusia County, Florida, leaving the building’s windows smashed and the offices riddled with bullet holes
Staff locked up and left the GOP headquarters - which sits in an inconspicuous strip mall unit next to a vape shop and a restaurant in Daytona Beach, just northeast of Orlando - on Sunday afternoon. When they returned on Monday morning, they found the building shot up and the sidewalk littered with broken glass.
Police say at least four shots were discharged into the office, and that the shooting took place some time after 4pm on Sunday. They are currently reviewing CCTV footage from the location, and so far have no witnesses.
Volusia County GOP chairman Tony Ledbetter called the incident “obviously politically motivated,” and blamed Democrat supporters.
“It is what it is,” Ledbetter told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “We’re gonna repair the window, and we’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing, and on November 6th they’re gonna get their rear ends kicked!”
State Rep. Tom Leek, who had been featured on signs in the office’s window, blamed both sides for contributing to the increasingly hostile political climate in America.
“The state of our political discourse in America is an embarrassment to all parties and those involved in the political process,” Leek said in a statement to the News-Journal. “Neither Democrats nor Republicans own the high ground on this issue. Sooner or later, both parties are going to have to stop suffering idiots within their own party, and cast them out on their own.”
Political violence has touched all corners of the nation, and Republican offices have often bore the brunt of the left’s rage. A GOP office in Manhattan was vandalized at the beginning of October, ahead of a planned appearance by right-wing activist Gavin McInnes. A week earlier in Illinois, a local party office was spray painted with the words “rape” and “shame,” as the Senate GOP voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh amid uncorroborated sexual assault allegations.
Last week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R) had his office in California smashed in by vandals who “threw a boulder” through its window before stealing office equipment.
Democrats too have been on the receiving end of the violence. FBI agents arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc on Friday, on suspicion of mailing a series of crude, homemade explosive devices to prominent Democratic figures, including former president Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, billionaire liberal donor George Soros and CNN’s New York studios. Sayoc’s devices were poorly constructed and none exploded, but FBI Director Christopher Wray said that “these are not hoax devices.”
President Trump has condemned Sayoc’s “sinister” deeds, and called on Americans to “unify as a nation in peace, love and in harmony,” but has also accused the media of using the “sinister actions of one individual to score points against me and the Republican party.” Democrats too have called for civility, but have also taken the opportunity to bash Trump and the Republican party, blaming the president’s anti-media rhetoric for the attack.
Before Sayoc’s attempted attacks, Trump and the GOP had spun anti-right political violence into a key campaign message. Trump portrayed next week’s midterm elections as a choice between economic growth and stability, and “mob rule” by the left. Likewise, the Republican Party’s latest campaign ad blames Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for encouraging violence and harassment against coservatives, arguing “the Democrat mob has gone too far.”
