Pence: GOP Office Firebombing Is ‘Political Terrorism’

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence declared that the recent firebombing of a GOP office in North Carolina was an act of “political terrorism.”

“An attack on our political system is an attack on us all,” Pence told reporters, according to ABC News. “Everyone … Republicans, Democrats or independents, universally condemn this attack. And we would urge anyone that might have information who perpetrated this attack to come forward and share that information with the proper authorities so we can bring to justice those individuals that were responsible for what occurred here.”

On Oct. 16, the GOP office of Orange County in North Carolina was burned and vandalized. According to the Charlotte Observer, a suspect or suspects threw a bottle of flammable liquid through the window of the office and spray painted a swastika next to the words, “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else” on the side of an adjacent building.

“This has gotten very little national media attention,” Pence added. “And I can’t help but feel that had this been the other way around, had it been an attack on this country on the other political parties county headquarters, that the level of national media coverage and the discussion would be significantly different and I think most of the American people know that.”

Although Pence is dissatisfied with the amount of coverage the North Carolina incident has received, Democrats have rallied in support of the GOP office and raised more than $10,000 for the rebuild.

“As Democrats, we are starting this campaign to enable the Orange County, North Carolina Republican office to re-open as soon as possible,” wrote David Weinberger, the Massachusetts Democrat who started the online fundraiser on GoFundMe.

“Until an investigation is undertaken, we cannot know who did this or why. No matter the result, this is not how Americans resolve their differences. We talk, we argue, sometimes we march, and most of all we vote. We do not resort to violence by individuals or by mobs.”

No arrests have been made in the incident.

Sources: ABC, Charlotte Observer / Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr