Please NC Republicans, quit with the fake outrage over Democrat’s post | Opinion

Oh, give me a break. Stop clutching your pearls.

Your rank hypocrisy is showing.

I’m referring to, of course, North Carolina Republicans drumming up phony outrage about an image that a North Carolina Democrat tweeted from the recent “No Kings” protests.

“Amazing turnout all across the Triangle today, including this event,” State Rep. Julie von Haefen tweeted about protests in Raleigh.

The tweet included a photo of a protester holding a cartoonish sign that included two heads on pikes.

“In these difficult times, some cuts may be necessary,” the sign read.

Best I can tell, it was in reference to severe and deadly cuts to Medicaid and other safety net programs Republicans are likely to make law in the coming weeks, as well as suggesting the two heads represented veritable beheadings. It read to me like satire, a play on words, not a threat.

The sign did not mention President Donald Trump , and neither did von Haefen in her tweet. Those fake heads resemble Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, however. That’s likely not coincidence, but purposeful.

It harkened back to 2017 early in Trump’s first term when comedian Kathy Griffin, trying to “shame” Trump, created a fake head of the new president covered with ketchup. That “bloody” image was widely condemned. Griffin was investigated by federal authorities and said she couldn’t fly for two weeks. CNN fired her.

”Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!” Trump tweeted at the time.

Griffin was effectively blackballed. Her career stalled.

North Carolina Republicans apparently want something similar to happen to von Haefen even though she didn’t create the image, only tweeted a photo of a protester holding the two-pikes contraption. State conservatives are calling for von Haefen’s resignation, or that she be disciplined by the North Carolina General Assembly.

“The posts Rep. von Haefen shared do not show the judgement or temperament of someone to hold public office,” Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina GOP, said in a statement. “For the good of her constituents to have effective representation, she should resign.”

I apologize if there’s vomit on your screen if you’re reading this online, or if vomit is smudging the ink on the newspaper in your hand. I couldn’t help it. I barfed at least three times while reading Simmons’s statement, it’s so disingenuous and odious.

Simmons is a high-ranking official of the party that made Mark Robinson the state’s standard bearer and gubernatorial nominee. Yes, that Mark Robinson, the one who said “Some folks need killing!” And that’s among the tamer things Robinson has said and done.

Simmons is also a proud Trump supporter, a man who thought former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband getting attacked in their home by a deranged hammer-wielding man was funny. And that’s among the tamer things Trump has said or done.

Everyone who voted for Trump or Robinson has forever forfeited the right to be outraged over what a political opponent says or does, no matter how silly or serious.

Their support for such men is proof positive they don’t much care about a political climate that is worsening by the minute, that they are in full support of our degrading politics just as long as they can use it for their own benefit. They don’t care about decorum or decency, except when they can weaponize a superficial version of those supposed principles to gain or retain power.

I’ve never condoned political violence, and never will. I’ve spoken out against it when Republicans were targeted at a charity softball practice, when Pelosi’s husband was attacked, and after Trump was nearly killed. I even called out Griffin’s stupid fake head gag.

But sometimes I feel naive for not being as partisan as North Carolina Republicans have been on this subject.

I don’t know if von Haefen meant that tweet to be read as a message about Trump. I know, though, that she deleted it and said she would be more careful in the future — the kind of contrition Republicans never require of Trump, the man they worship, or most others in their ranks who step across the line.

This story was originally published June 19, 2025 at 7:41 AM with the headline "Please NC Republicans, quit with the fake outrage over Democrat’s post | Opinion."