The Nebraska Republican Party’s headquarters in Lincoln was vandalized after at least one person threw bricks into the front office windows and wrote “abolish ICE” on the sidewalk outside early Tuesday morning.
Kenny Zoeller, executive director of the state party, told the Washington Examiner that he got a phone call from local police who responded to the scene overnight. Police told him the incident occurred between midnight and 3 a.m. local time.
The building’s right side double-pane window was completely shattered while the one on the left still had one pane in-act. Zoeller said both will have to be replaced and expects them to cost a couple thousands of dollars.
Zoeller said his organization did not stage the attack and blamed violent rhetoric from Democrats for the incident.
“’Lies insight fear, fear insights passion, passion incites violent acts,’” Zoeller said, quoting a line he said he had recently heard. “We’ve had to deal with this in Nebraska — in the sense of pushing back on Democratic candidates — that they say blatant things that are not true, whether it be Republican policy on immigration, Republican policy on healthcare.”
“But if you say it enough times, your supporters are going to start to believe it. And when someone believes something like that, if they truly believe Republicans are rounding people up and separating children — that is not factually true — that is going to incite action,” he added.
[Also read: Kellyanne Conway: ‘Arrogance and ignorance’ are behind calls to abolish ICE]
The Nebraska Democratic Party responded to incident, condemning “the violence and vandalism that happened at the Nebraska Republican Party.”
“We understand how frightening it is right now to be working in politics where people are resorting to violence, racism, and other divisive rhetoric. Our workplaces and homes are meant to be safe places where we pursue our goals and dreams. We condemn the violence and vandalism that happened at the Nebraska Republican Party. We want to remind citizens it is our duty to each other and to our country to debate, stand up for issues and to help people. We never stand for violence,” NDP Chairwoman Jane Kleeb said in a statement.
The GOP headquarters was also vandalized in December when the word “Resist” was spray-painted on the building.
