A social media account belonging to the Missouri Democratic Party appeared to promote the idea of setting fire to the home of an apparent avid Trump supporter in a now-deleted post.
On Monday, Democratic Party activist Jon Cooper took to X—the app formerly known as Twitter—to share a photo of a house covered in flags and signage supporting former President Donald Trump. Mr. Cooper included the caption “What would you do if this was your next-door neighbor?”
Mr. Cooper’s X post garnered thousands of replies, including one from an official account for the Missouri Democratic Party, which read “The roof, the roof is on [fire], we don’t need no water, let the ‘insert your word’ burn!” The X post also included the note, “#VoteBlue2024.” The post from the Missouri Democratic Party account included fire emojis and appeared to be a reference to the 1984 song “The Roof is on Fire” by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three. The lyrics to the song go, “The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don’t need no water, let the [expletive] burn.”
The post quickly garnered criticism from several prominent Republican and conservative figures, including Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
“No big deal, just the official account of the Missouri Democrat Party openly calling to burn down the homes of Trump supporters,” Mr. Trump said, sharing a screenshot of the Missouri Democratic Party’s X post.
In his own X post, Mr. Hawley said, “Here’s the Missouri Democrat Party advocating for a Trump supporter’s home to burn down. Sick. There’s no place for this kind of disgusting, violent rhetoric in Missouri.”
The Missouri Democratic Party subsequently removed the message from its social media profile.
“It was inappropriate and was immediately taken down on our own initiative because it did not represent the need, even in these divided political times, for spirited yet constructive dialogue,” Missouri Democratic Party Executive Director Matthew Patterson said in an emailed statement to NTD News. “The staff member in question has been appropriately reprimanded.”
The Missouri Democratic Party declined a request for additional details about how the staff member in question was reprimanded.
Accusation of Hypocrisy
While addressing his party’s controversial X post, Mr. Patterson turned the criticism back on Mr. Hawley, stating, “It is beyond hypocrisy that Josh Hawley is now attempting to lecture people about inflammatory political activity.”
“The Missouri Democratic Party will stay laser-focused on electing candidates up and down the ballot whose policies will make this a better state for everyone,” Mr. Patterson’s statement continued.
It was not immediately clear why the Missouri Democratic Party official accused Mr. Hawley of behaving hypocritically in this instance.
In a Tuesday post on X, Mr. Hawley again referenced the Missouri Democratic Party’s social media post, stating, Missouri Democrats are “now trying to bury their cheerleading for violence, but where is the apology to Missourians—you know, the people whose houses they hope burn down? And have all [Missouri] Dems condemned this?”
Mr. Hawley won office in 2018 after unseating then-incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. He’s up for re-election in 2024.
Mr. Trump won the general election in Missouri in 2016, beating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by about 19 percentage points. Mr. Trump won Missouri again in 2020, beating President Joe Biden by about 15 points in the statewide vote tally.