President’s effigy smashed with mallet at GOP rally

AN effigy of Joe Biden was high-kicked and bashed with a mallet by Republicans at a fundraising event in Kansas, prompting calls for the state’s GOP leaders to resign.

Footage from Friday night’s Grand Old Party event showed Republicans hitting a mannequin wearing a mask of the US president and a T-shirt that said “Let’s Go Brandon”, a coded insult aimed at Mr Biden.

Mike Kuckelman, former Kansas GOP chairman, claimed people were “invited to beat” the effigy of Mr Biden in exchange for a donation.

Tickets for the event are understood to have cost between $100 and $300, and conservative musician Ted Nugent appeared as a keynote speaker.

Maria Holiday, the chairwoman of the Johnson County Republican Party which organised the event, said the “booth was hosted by a karate school to promote their self-defence class”.

But Mr Kuckelman called on Ms Holiday as well as Mike Brown, the Kansas Republican Party chairman, to resign.

“Republicans, especially elected Republicans, must demand the resignations of Brown and Holiday. Silence is complicity in this case,” he wrote on Facebook.

Mr Kuckelman likened the actions to that of comedian Kathy Griffin who was fired from CNN after she held a mask of Donald Trump dripping with fake blood in 2017.

“We rightfully demanded she be cancelled. Please, we must speak equally as loudly in our opposition now,” he said.

“I don’t agree with President Biden’s policies, but he is a fellow human being. No one should condone or defend this horrific and shameful conduct.”

Ms Holiday reportedly said Mr Kuckelman’s Facebook post was “full of inaccuracies”.

Mr Brown has said he was not at the event and claimed it had “nothing to do” with the Kansas GOP.

Dinah Sykes, the Kansas Senate minority leader, also called on Republicans to denounce the behaviour.

“Political violence of any kind is vile and wrong, and we cannot afford to brush it under the rug when others encourage it,” Ms Sykes said.

“The focus now has to be on Republican leadership of the Kansas Senate and House.”