The New Year brought protestors to politicians’ doors as they sprayed graffiti on Mitch McConnell’s house, who is the Republican Senate Majority Leader from Kentucky, and Nancy Pelosi’s house, who is the Democratic House Leader from California. Pelosi’s garage door was covered in graffiti that said “cancel rent” and “we want everything,” which many believe has to do with the coronavirus stimulus checks. There was also a pig head surrounded by red paint left next to the garage door. McConnell’s house in Kentucky had its door covered in graffiti, saying “Where’s my money” and “Mitch kills poor” on the front door. 

The motive for Pelosi’s house being vandalized seems to be the coronavirus stimulus checks. Pelosi was the driving force behind the passing of a bill right before the new year that over tripled the amount of money that the stimulus checks would contain, from $600 to $2,000. Even though Pelosi helped lead to giving more money to the people, the vandals seem to be asking for more, such as canceling rent for people during COVID-19. The motive behind Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s house getting vandalized seems to be the opposite. McConnel had been trying to block the bill from getting passed; the “where’s my money” graffiti seems to be asking for more money. The “Mitch kills poor” tag seems to be in support of McConnel trying to give less money to the people. 

Junior Dante Arminio does not support the vandalism. When asked what he thought about the graffiti and vandalism, he said, “I think it’s absolutely horrible, especially with the people who were responsible. It doesn’t get us anywhere when we vandalize or riot or loot something, it just sets us back financially.” McConnell, one of the victims of the vandalism, agrees with Dante. “My wife and I have never been intimidated by this toxic playbook. We just hope our neighbors in Louisville aren’t too inconvenienced by this radical tantrum,” McConnell said when asked about the vandals during a local Kentucky news interview.

Junior Devan Chanda thinks that the vandalism symbolizes the nation as a whole. “Basically the vandalism was an act of aggression over the country’s state and is a symbol for how divided and angry we are as a country,” he said. Audrey Carlson, a neighbor of Pelosi’s home in San Francisco that got vandalized, said something along the same lines. When asked about the vandalism, she said, “…it’s a terrible start to this new year, when we are hoping for less anger and hatred than we’ve had to deal with for the last year.”