A crowd of protestors harassed Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) on Thursday night as he left the White House, where President Donald Trump had just delivered his nomination acceptance speech on the last night of the Republican National Convention.
Videos circulating online appear to show a large group of protestors crowding the Kentucky Republican and his wife while shouting “Breonna Taylor,” “Say her name” and “No justice, no peace” as they walk down the street.
Police formed a wall between the protestors and the couple as they walked back to their hotel. Video appears to show a protestor shoving a police officer, nearly knocking him down. Paul reaches out to steady the officer.
“They were shouting threats to us, to kill us, to hurt us, but also threats saying shout, shouting ‘say her name,’ Breonna Taylor, and it’s like you couldn’t reason with this mob, but I’m actually the author of the Breonna Taylor law to end no-knock raids,” the senator said Friday morning in an appearance on Fox & Friends. “So the irony is lost on these idiots that they’re trying to kill the person who’s actually trying to get rid of no-knock raids.”
Demonstrators yelled, “We’re not going to let you go alive unless you’ll say you’re for criminal justice reform” at Paul, who says he has authored 22 criminal justice reforms with President Trump and former President Barack Obama.
Last night after the incident, the senator tweeted that he had been “attacked by an angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House.” He thanked D.C. police for “literally saving our lives from a crazed mob.”
Paul, who was attacked by a neighbor in 2017 leading him to have part of his lung removed, said he believes he could have been killed or seriously injured by Thursday night’s mob if not for the police.
“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,” he said.
While Paul and his wife were unharmed, he is calling on the FBI to make arrests and investigate “interstate criminal traffic being paid for across state lines.”
“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,” he added.
As President Trump prepared to give his speech from the South Lawn on Thursday night, hundreds of protestors gathered outside the White House, yelling “No justice, no peace” and “Join us.”
Protestors, many of whom held anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter signs and beat drums, could be heard from the South Lawn.
The Pauls were not the only attendees of Trump’s speech that protestors harassed: video by the Daily Caller appears to show protestors shouting expletives at other attendees exiting Trump’s speech. Police officers appeared to provide security for these guests as well.
“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,” Paul 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.”
Paul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
