JEFFERSON CITY 鈥 A St. Charles County state senator running for governor on Monday threatened to burn books on the lawn of the Governor鈥檚 Mansion if voters elect him in 2024.
Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, was responding on X, formerly Twitter, to criticism of a video showing him at a St. Charles County political event burning a stack of cardboard boxes with a flamethrower.
Fellow state Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, was alongside Eigel in the video, which was widely shared on social media.
Critics claimed online that the senators were torching books. Eigel said they were cardboard boxes.
Here鈥檚 the full video for all to see! Enjoy! And join us today at to fight back against these woke radicals.
鈥 William Eigel (@BillEigel)
The boxes, Eigel wrote, represented 鈥渨hat I am going to do to the leftist policies and RINO corruption of the Jeff City swamp.鈥
鈥淏ut let鈥檚 be clear, you bring those woke, pornographic books to Missouri schools to try to brainwash our kids, and I鈥檒l burn those too 鈥 on the front lawn of the governor鈥檚 mansion,鈥 Eigel wrote.
People are also reading…
As of Monday evening, Eigel鈥檚 X account was suspended. Eigel鈥檚 page displayed a message that said, 鈥淭witter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.鈥
Eigel and Schroer said the video was filmed at the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee鈥檚 Freedom Fest, held Friday at Sugar Creek winery in Defiance.
鈥淣o books or human beings were harmed, burned, or targeted in the filming of that video,鈥 Schroer said Monday in a text message. 鈥淚t sure is telling that liberals have to stoop to promoting lies, hate, and divisiveness to distract from the failed policies of their party and their president.鈥
Eigel鈥檚 comments on book burning generated attention on social media, where he was compared to a Nazi.
Nazis in Germany burned books, including the works of Jewish, liberal and leftist authors, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The museum said burnings of books deemed 鈥渦n-German鈥 in May 1933 presaged an era of government cultural control under the Nazis.
Eigel faces Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in the August 2024 GOP primary.
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat and also a candidate for governor, lashed out at Eigel on Monday:
鈥淏ill Eigel and his extremist allies鈥 idea of campaigning for governor is using a flamethrower to burn whatever he doesn鈥檛 agree with,鈥 Quade said in a statement.
鈥淲e deserve a government that鈥檚 going to work to solve real problems, not make political stunts,鈥 Quade said.