Kansas Republicans are coming under fire for holding a fund-raiser on Friday evening at which attendees physically assaulted an effigy resembling President Biden, according to video footage shared on social media over the weekend.
The event, which took place on Friday in Overland Park, Kan., the state’s second-largest city, was hosted by the Johnson County Republican Party and billed as “A Grand Ol’ Party: Johnson County Road to Red Event.”
The Kansas City Star was first to report on the footage. A video of the event shows attendees hitting and kicking what appears to be a body opponent bag — a lifelike mannequin with a head and torso often used for self-defense training — with a mask resembling Mr. Biden’s face. The mannequin was dressed in a T-shirt that said “Let’s Go Brandon,” a phrase understood to be code for swearing at Mr. Biden. Attendees also appeared to hit karate breaking boards that had the same derogatory phrase.
That footage, originally posted on the online video platform Rumble, according to The Star, has been taken down, but clips have been shared by accounts like “Republicans against Trump” on X.
Maria Holiday, the chair of the Johnson County Republican Party, said that the event had featured an “interactive self-defense” exhibit, which is why the training bag was there.
“The Johnson County Republican Party’s successful series of events last weekend was tarnished by a brief incident where a mask depicting President Biden was added to an interactive self-defense display,” Ms. Holiday said in a statement. “The mask was regrettable and removed. No one collected or solicited any funds or donations in exchange for hitting the training device.”
She told The Star that the “booth was hosted by a karate school to promote their self-defense class.”
Michael Kuckelman, who served as chair of the Kansas Republican Party from 2019 to 2023, denounced the assault on the effigy in a Facebook post on Saturday. He didn’t attend the event, he said in a phone interview on Monday, but shared photos posted on social media that he was made aware of by “concerned Republicans” to express that “the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Kansas are as disgusted as I am.”
