2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg’s campaign office in Knoxville, Tenn., was vandalized with a campaign volunteer finding the damage early Friday morning.
Glass doors and windows at the Democratic presidential candidate’s office were spray-painted with offensive language and paper signs reading “Authoritarian,” “Classist” and “Oligarch.”
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LOOK: Mike Bloomberg's Knoxville, Tenn., campaign office was vandalized early Friday; in a statement, campaign manager Kevin Sheekey alleged the vandalism "echoes language from the Sanders campaign and its supporters." pic.twitter.com/pcIdZ5ywOH
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) February 21, 2020
Bloomberg’s Tennesee communications director, Holly McCall, called out supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), suggesting they did it.
“I’m sure it’s some sort of organized effort,” she said about multiple incidents of vandalism on Bloomberg’s campaign offices, across three states, in the past month.
Bloomberg’s Campaign Manager Kevin Sheekey responded to the attack in a statement posted online, “This latest incident at our Knoxville campaign office is exactly what we’ve been warning about. We don’t know who is responsible for this vandalism, but we do know it echoes languages from the Sanders campaign and its supporters.”
In the statement, Sheekey listed the cities and dates offices were vandalized along with examples to show how the language in the defaced property corresponds with the language used by Sanders and his campaign staff.
Sheekey continued:
“We call on Bernie Sanders to immediately condemn these attacks and for his campaign to end the Trump-like rhetoric that is clearly encouraging his supporters to engage in behavior that has no place in our politics.”
Sheekey also appeared to accuse Sanders, as he called on Sanders to condemn the attacks on campaign property and end the “Trump-like rhetoric.”
Damage to the former mayor of New York City’s Tennessee campaign office ensued after Wednesday night’s Democratic debate in which Sanders responded to questions concerning a group of his supporters, known as the “Bernie Bros.”
“We have over 10.6 million people on Twitter, and 99.9% of them are decent human beings, are working people, are people who believe in justice, compassion, and love,” Sanders said.
Sanders stressed that if there are any, it is very few of his supporters making “ugly remarks.”
“I disown those people,” he said, adding, “They are not part of our movement.”
As of Friday, investigators had no solid leads nor suspects.