Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News exclusively on Thursday that the leftist mob that surrounded him on his way out of the White House after President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention (RNC) speech last week, along with other leftist violence in Democrat-controlled cities, could be a game-changer in this election.
Asked to reflect on what happened to him and his wife Kelley Paul last Thursday, video of which Breitbart News captured on scene, Paul said that rioters and people who break the law will continue to do so until they face consequences for their actions.
“People who act this way and people who misbehave and break the law have to be punished,” Paul said. “What’s happening is they’re either being arrested or not arrested and then they don’t do anything. One of the people who was trying to get to us, who tried to knock the policeman down, had an altercation with the policeman just after they got us to our hotel, and punched the policeman. The policeman had a cut around his eye that required stitches. The person wasn’t even held. They were let go without bail. So if we do this, if we don’t punish people who misbehave, there will continue to be misbehavior. If you let people roam the streets and throw molotov cocktails, and you don’t arrest these people, you’ll get more of it. I think the mayors of these cities have let us down. To a person, these mayors are Democrats. Democrats have run all of these cities, not for a short period of time, but really for 50 years Democrats have been running these cities.”
This past week, as his poll numbers have tanked nationally and in battleground states, Democrat presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden appeared in Pittsburgh purportedly to condemn violence and rioting and looting. Instead, he just blamed President Trump for it. Asked about this, and whether he thinks Biden or his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) are genuine on this, Paul ripped into both Biden and Harris. Paul specifically pointed to Harris pushing to fundraise for the Minnesota Freedom Fund earlier this summer, an organization that spent raised funds bailing rioters in Minnesota out of jail.
“We’ve asked Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both to condemn the attack and to tell their supporters to quit doing this,” Paul said. “Instead, we’ve got Kamala Harris offering bail money for rioters, and offering bail money for several people with long criminal histories and getting these people out of prison and back on the streets. So not only have we not been apologized to, but Kamala Harris is leading an effort to get these people out of jail so they can recommit these crimes again. I’ve called on both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to both condemn this attack, and condemn all of this violence, but instead Joe Biden gets on television and in a disingenuous way blames it all on President Trump. The Democrats need to look in the mirror, because you don’t see any Republicans going into Nancy Pelosi’s restaurant and taking her food and throwing it on the floor. You don’t see any Democrat politicians being attacked, quite frankly. All you see is the left attacking the right. So it’s a little hard for me to understand how it’s all President Trump’s fault when all of the attacks are coming from the left. So this is really, I think, a big issue and if we want our whole country to look like Portland then that’s what’s going to happen if we get Joe Biden as president. He’s already talked about, he says, ‘I’m going to take funding from the police.’ He says ‘oh I’m not going to defund them I’m just going to reallocate the money somewhere else.’ That sounds like defunding the police to me. Also I think it’s a big mistake to elect Biden and Kamala Harris because they say they’re going to lock the economy down more. That’s the cause of our serious economic depression right now because the economy has been locked down primarily by Democrat governors. We’ve got to open it up. We’ve got to do the opposite of what Joe Biden’s saying. He wants to close it down. We have to open it up. So I think it’s a clear distinction not only on law and order but also on what we have to do to get the economy going again.”
What is truly remarkable about the incident with Paul and his wife outside the RNC, where a phalanx of police officers needed to escort them to their hotel near the White House to guide them through the violent mob, is that rioters were shouting at him to “say her name.” That was a reference to the incident of Breonna Taylor, who was killed during a no-knock raid in Louisville, Kentucky, Paul’s home state. But the “irony” here, Paul said, is that he is actually the author of the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act that would ban no-knock raids by police, and is a supporter of criminal justice reform measures—and perhaps has done more than any other Republican in Congress on this issue. What he said this proves about the left’s riotous mobs is that they are devoid of reason, and filled with “complete and utter ignorance.”
“It’s complete and utter ignorance. I’ve been an opponent of no-knock raids for my entire political life,” Paul said. “We actually introduced a bill after we spoke with Breonna Taylor’s family to try to make sure this doesn’t happen again. So, I’ve supported not only that, but in Louisville the Metro Council has voted unanimously to get rid of no-knock raids. I’ve been talking with police officers and sheriffs around the state and they say they’re rarely used outside of some of our major cities. A lot of our law enforcement folks say they actually don’t need them. But the irony is these thugs, who were threatening to kill us if we don’t say her name and were threatening us in the street, that these people are somehow saying ‘say her name’ and don’t have any idea that I’ve authored this bill and that I’ve actually been the Republican who has offered more criminal justice reform bills than any other Republican—every bill I’ve authored has a Democrat and bipartisan sponsorship. So my questions to the Democrats are, the ones I’ve previously worked with, where are they now condemning this violence? Instead, they’re saying ‘get up in their face’ or ‘march in the streets.’ They’re encouraging this kind of behavior and I haven’t heard one prominent Democrat get up and say these people ought to be arrested and put away.”
As for the political ramifications of the leftist mobs and violence tearing apart American cities, Paul said that while he continues to believe the Democrats have an advantage in November, even though he thinks the race is tight, he believes this violence by leftists is swinging the race in Trump’s direction. Whether or not it will swing the race enough, he is uncertain. But he does think Trump has a “great chance” now that the Democrats have shown “their true colors.”
“I continue to think it’s a 50-50 election and that the Democrats have some advantage,” Paul said. “I would say in the last week or two, though, as the cities continue to burn—Kenosha, Portland, Seattle, all of these cities—as they continue to burn, people are beginning to shift and say that’s ‘Joe Biden’s America’ and ‘Portland is what Joe Biden will do to America.’ So, yes, I think there is a shift and I think law and order may actually make a difference in the election. I can’t imagine a policeman, a single policeman, voting for Joe Biden. All across the land the Democrats have shown they don’t care to support our law enforcement at all. They’re more in favor of supporting the rioters than they are law enforcement. This is going to take a toll on them. It’s going to be a difficult election. I don’t foresee a landslide, but I think the president has a great chance now that they’ve shown their true colors as far as law and order goes.”
The riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the past couple of weeks really seem to have changed the game on this issue showing Americans this leftist riotous violence can hit any place in the country, not just big cities and metropolises or coastal elitist enclaves. Paul noted that Kentucky is at risk too because of the Taylor case, and specifically called on the governor, Democrat Andy BeShear, to preemptively call up the National Guard ahead of the Attorney General’s decision on whether to charge the officer involved in Taylor’s death.
“We have a threat of it in Kentucky as well,” Paul said. “The Breonna Taylor case is in Louisville, our biggest city. The threat is if the mob doesn’t get what they want done that they’re going to burn the city. Frankly, I think it’s important that the National Guard be called out preemptively and that there’s a large and powerful show of force. This is a predictable thing coming. There is going to be a decision by the Attorney General whether to charge the policeman. If he doesn’t charge the policeman, they’ve threatened to burn the city down. So, I think the National Guard needs to be out in a big way. The governor has the power to do this, not the president. This is up to the governor. If the governor doesn’t do it, and Louisville burns, it’s all going to be on the shoulders of one man who failed to stop it.”
Paul concluded by noting that elections have consequences, and whether Americans elect Democrats or Republicans as mayors and governors and U.S. representatives and Senators and as president could have serious implications on whether their communities are safe.
“Yeah, I think so and every politician says every four years that this is the most important election,” Paul said. “I think all elections are important and this is an important one obviously, whether it’s the most important election I don’t know about that. But I would say we’re at a tipping point and we’re no longer talking about centrism or moderates. We’re talking about wild extremes here. We’re talking about Democrats who will get rid of the legislative filibuster, which means a simple majority can vote in socialism, a simple majority can vote in statehood for D.C., a simple majority could stack the Supreme Court. Once you get rid of the legislative filibuster, what you end up with is a society that could very quickly be transformed in the wrong direction. So, we’ll see what happens, but I think it’s important that not only do we keep control of the Senate but I think the presidential election is also incredibly important too. So we’ll see what happens over time but I think more and more Americans are waking up and seeing these images of people being stomped until blood is flowing from their ears that they don’t want that so I think people will end up voting and saying ‘I want to live in a safe country.’ We’ll see what happens but I have a feeling this may well make the difference in the election.”
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