(RepublicanDaily.org) – A training dummy fitted with a mask of president Joe Biden stole the show at a fundraising event organized by the Kansas’ Johnson County chapter of the Republican party.
Videos uploaded to social media show attendees kicking and punching the makeshift effigy of the president. One even swung a baseball bat at it. A caption for one of the videos claim that participants paid money to attack the dummy.
The incident sparked backlash from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Mike Kuckelman, a former chairman of the Kansas chapter of the Republican Party, posted a lengthy statement on Facebook condemning the incident.
“This conduct is shameful, and it is WRONG,” Kuckelman wrote.
Kuckelman added that while he disagreed with president Biden’s policies, inciting violence, even at a makeshift effigy was another thing entirely, describing the stunt as “horrific and shameful conduct.”
The former GOP official called on fellow Republicans to remember the time comedian Kathy Griffin staged a similar “shameful” stunt, where she posed with a fake severed head of then-president Donald Trump.
“Let’s not forget our outrage… [when] we rightfully demanded she be cancelled,” Kuckelman said, also calling for the resignations of the current Kansas GOP chair Mike Brown and chair of the Johnson County chapter of the Republican Party, Maria Holiday.
On the Democrats’ side, Dinah Sykes, Kansas Senate Minority Leader, blasted the stunt, and called on her Republican colleagues in the state legislature to condemn the incident.
“Political violence of any kind is vile and wrong,” she said.
The Kansas Republican Party addressed the issue in a statement, explaining that the stunt was initiated by a karate and self-defense organization that rented a space at the Johnson County Republican Party fundraiser. The Kansas GOP also said that no member of its staff or leadership went to the fundraiser, and stressed that outside exhibitors’ conduct was outside of its purview and it had no input whatsoever in the staging of the stunt that involved the makeshift effigy.
The Johnson County Republican Party also issued its own statement, saying that the incident was only “brief,” calling the stunt “regrettable.” The Johnson County GOP added that the mask was removed, and denied claims that funds or donations were collected in exchange for hitting the Biden effigy.
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