Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and his wife were heckled by protesters as they left the White House Thursday night following President Trump’s exhausting Republican National Convention acceptance speech. The couple was en route to their hotel, and though they were accompanied by police escorts, the demands from the crowd—that Paul acknowledge Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot and killed by Louisville police officers during a no-knock raid in March—left Paul shaken, afraid, and… desperate to bitch about it on Twitter.
“Just got attacked by an angry moob ofo over 100, one block away from the White House,” Paul wrote. “Thank you to @DCPoliceDept for literally saving our lives from a crazed mob.”
Paul continued to push this narrative of a deadly, bloodthirsty crowd on Fox and Friends Friday morning. He described a moment in which one of the cops escorting him was pushed. The officer lost his balance, which alarmed Paul. “If he’s down, the mob’s loose on us,” Paul explained.
There’s ample video footage showing the exact moment this occurred: A cop pushed angry protesters away with his bike, the protesters pushed back, and the cop stumbled. The so-called mob didn’t descend on them like wild animals, even when the cop was vulnerable.
Plus, it appears as if a number of the people surrounding him were photographers, not simply protesters.
“I truly believe this with every fiber of my being, had they gotten at us they would have gotten us to the ground, we might not have been killed, might just have been injured by being kicked in the head, or kicked in the stomach until we were senseless,” Paul told Fox and Friends.
I find that a little hard to believe. Not every one is Paul’s neighbor, who actually assaulted him that one time.
Paul was especially frustrated by the protesters’ demands to “say her name”—her being Taylor—and his rationale is, admittedly, fair: In June, Paul introduced the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, a bill that would prohibit federal law enforcement and federally funded police departments from conducting no-knock warrants. Paul is also one of the more consistent Republicans in the Senate on matters of criminal justice reform: He has long been opposed to mandatory minimums and supports the restoration of voting rights for some non-violent formerly incarcerated people.
That’s all well and good, and maybe the protesters weren’t aware of Paul’s involvement with the Breonna Taylor Act. Still, Paul is a raging prick who cannot resist undermining his own sliver of good politics with melodramatic, inflammatory nonsense.
From Fox News:
“I believe there are going to be people who are involved with the attack on us that actually were paid to come here, are not from Washington, D.C., and are sort of paid to be anarchists,” he said. “This is disturbing because really, if you’re inciting a riot that’s a crime, but if you’re paying someone to incite a riot that person needs to go to jail as well.”
“They were inciting a riot and they would have killed us had the police not been there,” the senator added.
He slammed the Democratic presidential ticket for violence in Democrat-run cities.
“It’s become so dangerous for us and I don’t hear Joe Biden or Kamala Harris saying one thing about the violence. This mob is their voters. This is the new Democrat party, and if we don’t resist this, the United States is going to become Portland. We’re going to become Chicago. All of these failed cities Democrats have run, the president said in his speech,” he said. “If we allow them to take over the White House, we are going to become Portland, the country will be on fire, we have to have law and order and we have to support the police. I can’t say that strong enough.”
Dude, take a weed gummy or something.
CNN reports that four cases of covid-19 have been linked to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Who could have possibly seen this coming?
From CNN:
Two attendees and two individuals “supporting the event” tested positive, according to an official release from Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located.
A spokesman for the party said the individuals tested positive upon arriving at the convention and were immediately sent home. In all, 792 Covid-19 tests were given to people who attended or provided support to the convention in Charlotte, the county said.
While many of the in-person events for the RNC were held outdoors where transmission is more difficult, few attendees bothered wearing masks or socially distancing. It sure looked like a cesspool of Miss Rona to me, but we’ll see what happens next week.
- Fun fact: While overall viewership for both the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention dropped from 2016, more people tuned in for the DNC than the RNC this year. Plus, while an estimated 23.6 million people watched Joe Biden’s acceptance speech, 21.6 million watched Trump’s. [CNN]
- The Bad Bunny song “Pero Ya No” is featured in a new Biden ad:
- The CDC is now dishing out advice for restaurants on how to deal with violent customers who refuse to abide by covid-19 safety guidelines. Yes, we absolutely live in hell. [CDC]
- The USPS is still a mess thanks to Trump’s main man Louis DeJoy. [NBC News]
- Rough week for layoffs thanks to the pandemic that the Trump administration insists we’re recovering from:
- Uh, New York police union is threatening New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to resign by sunset on Twitter. Can we all just fucking relax for two goddamn seconds? [New York Post]