Albany Republican Headquarters vandalized with swastikas

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Police are investigating after a vandal taped three swastikas to the front of the New York State Republican Party headquarters in Albany overnight. The incident took place at 315 State Street, where the Republican State Committee is based.

Albany Police Department Public Information Officer Megan Craft said officers responded to the scene around 9:30 a.m. and confirmed a report had been filed. No arrests have been announced, but Craft said the investigation is ongoing.

The swastikas were apparently printed on standard letter-sized paper and duct-taped to the front window, the front door, and the building’s front sign. A sign taped below the swastika on the door read, “If this is not what you stand for, prove it.” A chalk message written on the sidewalk in front of the building read, “Return Kilmar Now!”

With no apparent ties to New York, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador under the Trump administration. The Supreme Court directed the administration to facilitate his return, though the administration insists his gang affiliations made the deportation legitimate. Abrego Garcia's lawyers argued that there is no evidence of him breaking any law.

The New York Republican Party has called it a vile act of political vandalism.

"We must ensure this vicious criminal who perpetrated this heinous crime be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, rumored to be pursuing the Republican nomination for governor. "New Yorkers haven’t forgotten that New York Democrats viciously compared last year’s successful Trump Madison Square Garden Rally to Nazis and called President Trump 'Hitler. Americans rejected this dangerous rhetoric and overwhelmingly elected President Trump at the ballot box. And now, less than a year later, the New York GOP Albany State headquarters was criminally vandalized with Nazi symbols.”

"This is not only an attack on our party, it is also an attack on the values of civil discourse, democracy, and decency," party chair Ed Cox said. "Governor Hochul, Attorney General James, and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand must speak out clearly and unequivocally regarding the rising danger of left-wing violence."

Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt condemned the act and the message behind it. “The cowards who defaced Republican Party Headquarters with swastikas aren't just hateful—they're historically illiterate,” he said.

Like Stefanik, Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay linked the vandalism to political rhetoric during the 2024 presidential campaign. “Democrats spent months and millions calling Donald Trump ‘Hitler’ and predicting the end of America,” he said. “Their strategy failed miserably at the ballot box but unfortunately managed to inspire this kind of inexcusable behavior.”