The top Democratic Party official in North Carolina compared Republican actions in the state to rape Thursday. Randy Voller, the North Carolina Democratic Party chairman and mayor of Pittsboro reportedly said, "the GOP that's leading us – we don't know where they're taking us, but they're raping us along the way."
Voller was speaking to the Democratic Women of Guilford County at their annual President's Spring Banquet according to the News-Record.
The quote came out in a tweet from the Guliford County Democrats, who were live tweeting the event. Voller said the tweet, which was quickly deleted, was being taken out of context.
"I think it's a complete misquote, or a redaction," Voller told WRAL in North Carolina. "I did use the term contextually."
"It's as if barbarians are pillaging and plundering. I'm talking about the destruction that's going on," he said referring to Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature. "It's no different than saying that fracking is raping the land.
Voller said he was "sorry" if people were offended.
"I was not intending to offend anyone," he said. "I'm sorry if they took it that way. That's not what the metaphor means."
When a News-Record reporter told Voller there was a likely chance a woman at the event had been a victim of rape, Voller said he could have been a victim as well.
"I don't know that," Voller said. "Women and men are both victims of abusive power and violence. I personally could have been raped."