Republican John McCann is feeling the heat in his bid to unseat Democrat Josh Gottheimer in New Jersey's 5th Congressional District after suggesting Democratic Party leaders Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters are partly to blame for the swastikas found painted at the home of a Gottheimer supporter in Sussex County on Saturday.

In a Facebook post, McCann denounced the swastikas that were spray-painted on a Gottheimer campaign sign and the garage at a home in Hampton Township as "abhorrent," "unfortunate," and "offensive." But in the same post, he took a swipe at Pelosi and Waters, two California Democrats who have been highly critical of President Donald Trump, who he claims have been spreading hate.

"These types of actions happen when Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters spread messages of hate," McCann wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. McCann didn't elaborate, but his attack prompted a number of constituents to post rebuttals on the McCann page — only to have those posts taken down minutes after they appeared.

"He [McCann] condemned the act of vandalism, but in the next breath, he says Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters incited the violence," said Robin Canetti of Ringwood, who says she went online Sunday night to let McCann know she disagreed with him. "I didn't use vulgarity. My language was precise. But it was taken down and now I'm blocked."

Anna Wong of Paramus said she had the same experience. Wong said she was "confused" by McCann's suggestion that Pelosi and Waters were somehow responsible for the attack, especially since the Gottheimer sign defaced with a swastika also had the hashtag #MAGA, which stands for the Trump campaign slogan Make America Great Again, spray-painted on it.

"I really was confused. It was a strange statement, to blame people who had nothing to do with it." Wong said her post remained up on the McCann page for about five minutes, then was taken down and she was blocked.

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"It’s concerning that you have someone who’s running for Congress that they have chosen who they want to hear from and who they don’t," she said. "How do you ask people to vote for you when you don’t want to hear from them?"

Last week, McCann joined the chorus of elected officials, both Democratic and Republican, in calling for Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino to step down after he was caught making racist and homophobic remarks on the day of Gov. Phil Murphy's inauguration. But while calling the sheriff's remarks "offensive" and "shameful," he also took a swipe at Gottheimer for standing "shoulder to shoulder" with Saudino when he received his endorsement earlier this year.

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Wong and Canetti both say that was a cheap shot, a guilt-by-association tact that attempted to link Gottheimer to Saudino's racism.

"“When the Democratic sheriff of Bergen County made racist comments, the Democratic party made him resign," Canetti said. "But the Republicans, they ignore Trump all the time and the white supremacists in his administration.”

McCann did not return a phone call seeking comment, but through his spokeswoman, Lauren Zisa Samulka, provided examples of what he contends is hate speech by Pelosi and Waters. McCann cites Pelosi's speech last January before the U.S. Conference of Mayors in which she summarized Trump's immigration policy as "make America white again."

As for Waters, McCann took issue with an interview she gave CNN in June, during the controversy over the U.S. policy of separating families at the border. Waters encouraged Americans who opposed the policy to confront Trump Cabinet officials wherever they find them.

"Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up," Waters said. "And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."

But what does this have to with Gottheimer, who is Jewish, and whose campaign is once again the target of anti-Semitism? In the waning days of Gottheimer's campaign against Republican Scott Garrett in 2016, fliers depicting Gottheimer with a devil's head, reminiscent of Nazi propaganda, were found at schools and train stations in Emerson, Hillsdale, Park Ridge, Westwood and Woodcliff Lake.

"They are responsible for spreading hate," Samulka said of Pelosi and Waters. "It just encourages people to lash out." Of Gottheimer, she said, "they all vote together," adding that he has voted with the Democrats 88 percent of the time since he was elected.

In an era of bitter politics, fake news, 24-hour news cycles, and expansive opportunities for commentary via social media, most campaigns guard their Facebook pages against trolling or the use of profanity. Posts that are deemed offensive are taken down, but whether that should apply to simple political disagreements is an open question.

The Gottheimer campaign says it monitors its Facebook page and takes down offensive posts, but will leave up comments in which someone disagrees with a position taken by the candidate. Samulka was asked to explain why the comments critical of McCann were taken down, but she declined to do so.

Instead, she told this reporter in an email: "You are writing a hit piece."

On Tuesday, New Jersey State Police were still investigating the swastika spraying at the home of Collen Murch and Adam Stolarsky in Hampton Township, and no arrests had been made. Gottheimer praised the denunciations issued by two Republican leaders in Sussex County, but he said McCann was trying to politicize the ugly incident.

"While Republican State Senator Oroho and Sussex County Republican chair Jerry Scanlan put common sense and decency ahead of party lines by condemning this hate crime, John McCann tried to justify the horrific act," Gottheimer said. "We should all be grateful to the Sussex County Prosecutor and the New Jersey State Police for their quick response."

In his previous statement on the swastika incident, McCann has both condemned the act and urged anyone with knowledge of the incident to come forward. "We condemn hatred in all forms and from all people,” McCann said Saturday.

Questions of tolerance appear to be at the forefront of the congressional mid-term elections, which are less than seven weeks away. The Democrats are seeking to wrest control of the House and the Senate and blue-leaning New Jersey is considered a crucial in that effort.

The 5th Congressional District, which covers portions of Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties, historically has leaned Republican, although Gottheimer has positioned himself as a centrist during his first two years in office. McCann, an attorney from Oakland, has embraced much of the Trump agenda.

Trump, as usual, is the lightning rod for debate. His previous statements on race, and his presumed sympathies toward white nationalists has put the GOP on the defensive as the mid-term elections approach.

Questions of tolerance came up in a debate this week in New Jersey’s 7th District, where incumbent Republican Rep. Leonard Lance’s campaign objected to Democratic challenger Tom Malinowski saying Republicans are “having a debate about whether to be a white nationalist party.”

After some in the Chamber of Commerce audience where they were debating Monday audibly objected, Malinowski noted that Trump had said after the Charlottesville white supremacist march ended in violence that there “were good people on both sides.”

Lance’s campaign spokesman Jim Hilk called those “inaccurate and harmful comments” that show Malinowski “believes those who disagree with him must be members of a ‘white nationalist party.’”

Asked about that and McCann’s invocation of Pelosi and Waters in response to a Swastika painted on a garage, the head of the House Republicans’ national political arm condemned them both.

“I don’t think either one of those statements is appropriate or correct,” Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, told a group of reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t think racism or hate has any place in our politics, and we need to disavow it at every turn.”

Stivers added that the NRCC quickly rescinded its endorsement in New Jersey’s 2nd District after writings by Republican primary winner Seth Grossman after report about his past statements and writings on social media, including him saying “diversity is a bunch of crap” and sharing a post by another writer that said black people “are a threat to all who cross their paths.”

Stivers told reporters that the NRCC “has written off” the 2nd District.

“We’re the only party committee who has walked away from somebody because of their, you know, outrageous statements, and that was Seth Grossman in New Jersey,” Stivers said.