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By:
AFP | |||||||||
| Posted:
Oct,18-2016 11:52:05
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WASHINGTON
Police in the southern US state of North Carolina on Monday were investigating a firebomb attack on a Republican Party office, with the message "Nazi Republicans leave town or else" sprayed on an adjacent building.
No one was hurt in the arson attack overnight on the Orange County Republican Party headquarters in Hillsborough, the town said in a statement.
The executive director of the state's Republican Party called the attack "political terrorism." "The office itself is a total loss," Dallas Woodhouse told The Charlotte Observer. "The only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been."
Photographs posted by the state party showed the office's charred walls and furniture, with colourful lawn signs for candidates, including Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, appearing melted and warped. The perpetrators threw flammable material in a bottle through the office's front window, and spray--painted the words "Nazi Republicans leave town or else" on a business next door, the town said.
The attack was swiftly condemned by Mr Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton. "The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable," Mrs Clinton wrote on Twitter. "Very grateful that everyone is safe." Democrats meanwhile started raising funds to repair the building.
"Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!"Trump wrote.
Some analysts have voiced fears that Mr Trump’s repeated claims of fraud could spark violence from his supporters if he loses.
After the first election debate, Mr Trump said he would respect the election result. But he backtracked in an interview with the New York Times last month, saying, "We're going to see what happens."
Trump's running mate Mike Pence however sought to ease tensions, insisting his camp would accept defeat if that's what voters decide.
"We will absolutely accept the results of the election," he told CBS.
Pence was asked about a Trump supporter who told a newspaper he planned to go to polling places and make voters "a little bit nervous."
SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
"I don't think any American should ever attempt to make any other American nervous in the exercise of their franchise to vote," Pence said.
Two polls out on Sunday--taken after a slew of sexual misconduct allegations against Trump that emerged last week--put Clinton ahead.
But they did so by vastly different numbers: an ABC News/Washington Post survey had Clinton four points ahead while an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll put her margin at 11 points.
Adding to the polemic over Trump's fraud claims, top advisor Rudy Giuliani told CNN on Sunday--without offering evidence--that Democratic districts are known for counting the votes of dead people.
Giuliani claimed that if Republicans "control the inner cities the way Democrats do," then maybe "they'd do as much cheating as Democrats do."
Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine, interviewed on ABC, dismissed the claims.
Trump is "swinging at every phantom of his own imagination because he knows he's losing," Kaine said.
The nation's top elected Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has declared that he would no longer "defend" the party's nominee, rebuked Trump over his comments questioning the validity of the election process.
"Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity," his spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement.
This sparked another Trump outburst at Ryan.
"The Democrats have a corrupt political machine pushing crooked Hillary Clinton. We have Paul Ryan, always fighting the Republican nominee!" he wrote.
As Trump and Clinton prepare for their third and final debate on Wednesday, Clinton is lying low, apparently relying on Trump self--destructing.
These are also delicate times for Clinton. As sexual misconduct claims against Trump dominate the campaign, Clinton has appeared reluctant to speak out because she stuck by husband Bill while he was mired in the Monica Lewinsky and other sex scandals when he was president.
Nevertheless it is clear that the presidential race is shifting in her favour.
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