Police respond to incident at Massachusetts GOP headquarters

WOBURN — Police acted immediately after receiving a call from Massachusetts Republican Party headquarters on Wednesday about a man wearing a pink mask entering MassGOP offices and accusing staffers of being “fascists” before threatening to “come back with a weapon,” among other profanity-laced threats.

According to a press release, the individual identified himself as Hugh Samson. MassGOP staff was able to positively identify the man after a cursory internet search yielded news photos of him protesting in November 2020.

According to eyewitness accounts, Samson, a defense attorney from Nahant, entered MassGOP offices demanding to take staffers’ photos. When asked to leave, the masked Samson then demanded to know why staffers weren’t wearing masks inside their offices, calling it “a violation of the state mandate.”

Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons was not at the office at the time but thanked the Woburn Police Department for quickly dispatching an officer to the scene.

Lyons also questioned the timing.

Only hours before the incident, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that the statewide mask mandate for Massachusetts public schools will be lifted at the end of the month.

“People are done with the government overreach,” Lyons said. “They want to be able to live their lives normally again, and people like this individual who threatened my staff today are obviously distraught over the likelihood of that happening.

“Republicans are for giving people their lives back and somehow that’s what prompts left-wingers like our unannounced visitor to call us ‘fascists.’”