An offensive billboard erected by North Carolina gun shop Cherokee Guns that targets ‘The Squad’ is due to come down.
The billboard, which is located in Murphy, features pictures of Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Rashida Tlaib (Mich) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass) quipping, “The 4 Horsemen Cometh are Idiots.”
The billboard drew swift backlash, including from the congresswomen themselves, for inciting violence.
“How the hell is this not inciting violence?” Rep. Tlaib demanded on Twitter.
“Racist rhetoric from the occupant of the White House has made hate our new normal. We are still vulnerable,” Rep. Pressley added.
But now, according to CNN, the sign is coming down, with another billboard already being designed to take its place.
“It broke our hearts that the controversy happened. Freedom of speech is a right. Unless it is something illegal or offensive, we use our best judgment and let it go. It is tragic what happened. He has been a great client of ours for a while, he just has his beliefs,” Danny Coleman, a salesman for Allison Outdoor Advertising, the billboard company in question told the network.
“I wish it hadn’t happened,” Coleman added, noting that the signs in the past have been political. “I didn’t want to hurt anybody. … I hope that we can heal from it and people can forgive.”
Coleman told CNN that Cherokee Guns owner Doc Wacholz changes the sign on that billboard every three weeks, but the one that is coming down has only been up since Tuesday.
Wacholz said that he chose to target the congresswomen because of “the message of turning this country into a socialist country,” Coleman said.
He added that it didn’t matter who they were, or what race they were, their message was what was being attacked.
“I don’t care if it was four white women or four white guys that had their view, they’d be on the billboard,” Wacholz said.