Pence visits firebombed GOP office in North Carolina

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Mike Pence on Tuesday is visiting with volunteers in front of the local Republican Party headquarters that was firebombed this weekend.

Pence, who is in the state for a pair of rallies Tuesday, labeled the bombing an act of "political terrorism" as he toured the burned building.


"I wanted to come by to call attention to this cowardly attack," Pence said, speaking outside the office next to a charred sign that read "Register to vote here."

Pence accused the media of failing to adequately cover the incident, saying that if such an attack had taken place against a Democratic Party building it would have gotten far more attention and citing the alleged lack of coverage as further evidence of media bias against Donald Trump.

"This has gotten very little national media attention," Pence said.

The attacks left the inside of the building badly burned and the outside defaced: the attackers spray-painted a nearby building with a swastika and wrote, “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” That graffiti has since been removed.

The bombing and graffiti took place early Sunday morning, and has been widely condemned across the political spectrum. The attack is being investigated by federal, state and local agencies. No arrests have been made.

“The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe,” wrote Hillary Clinton on Twitter.

North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory called the act “an assault on our democratic process.”

Trump took a different approach, blaming the attack on the Democrats.

“Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

He wrote soon after: “ALL SAFE IN ORANGE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. With you all the way, will never forget. Now we have to win. Proud of you all!”

On Tuesday morning, Trump previewed Pence's line, saying the attack would have gotten more attention had it happened to a Democratic office.

“Oh, it would be the biggest — and it’d make Trump out to be the worst, horrible, most horrible human being on earth," Trump told conservative radio host Mike Gallagher on Tuesday morning.

“No, they hardly even covered it. And if that were done to a Democratic place of the same nature, it would be worldwide news. It would be the biggest thing and they’d say, you know, racism and all of this other nonsense that they use."

Nolan McCaskill contributed to this report.