Rep. Tom Rice responds to defaced campaign sign in Surfside Beach resident's front yard

SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — A Surfside Beach resident has hung a Congressman Tom Rice campaign sign that has "traitor" on it from what appears to be a noose outside of his home.

We spoke with one of the homeowners who said her husband put up the sign, and she didn’t want to comment on it. She added that her husband wasn’t home, and she didn’t want him to comment as well.

Someone who did want to offer comments on the situation was Congressman Tom Rice.

He said his initial thoughts when he saw pictures of the sign was that this is a free country.

“Well it’s a free country and people are entitled to think what they think and say what they say. There’s a wide variety of opinions all the time and I wish I could make everybody happy all the time but that’s impossible. I’ll just keep doing the best I can," Congressman Rice said.

He also offered comments on the matter that he thinks caused the homeowner to feel this way.

“I know people love President Trump and I sure supported him throughout. I voted with him more than anybody in the South Carolina delegation but you know what they say about President Trump if you vote with him 99% of the time you’re a traitor," Congressman Rice said.

Neighbors didn’t want to speak on the matter.

ABC15 also spoke to Mayor Bob Hellyer who said he notified the Town Administrator and Code Enforcement about the situation.

William Shanahan the Town Administrator for Surfside Beach said when Mayor Bob Hellyer first told him about the sign, he asked what if anything could be done.

“I got a call from the mayor and he said that there was a sign up and had traitor written on it and a hangman’s noose and we needed to figure what or if we could do anything about it," Shanahan said.

That's when he decided to contact not only Code Enforcement but also local law enforcement.

“I got with my code enforcement planning folks and figured out what was legal and what was not legal and then I called the police chief to see if it was like terroristic threats or anything like that," Shanahan said. "The police chief let me know that they were actually notified about this I believe by tom rice’s office and they’ve basically been working on and off with him all day and he’s let us know that as far as he’s concerned no actions were needed."

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The town administrator said no laws are being violated, so the sign does not need to be removed but Mitch Combs with code enforcement for Surfside Beach said that may change.

"It has been investigated. We do have a planning consultant on retainer and I am going to be getting with them later this afternoon. They will be coming in for the council meeting tonight and I will be addressing that specifically whether those smaller signs have any regulations," Combs said.

The resident had Rep. Russell Fry signs in front of his house. Rep. Russell said he wasn’t aware of the matter and didn’t have anything to add.