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(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his wife were accosted by protesters after leaving the White House Thursday night following President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
“Yeah, you know, my wife and I– it was horrific. We had two women with us who were friends of ours. We had looked out. We came out of the speech, and we looked into the street. Our hotel was only right across the street from the White House, but he couldn’t go, because the mob was already chasing people down that chose to go out that exit, so the Secret Service says get on a bus and ride to the Trump Hotel,” Paul said in an interview with Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
“So we got on a bus. It took 45 minutes to get through all the mobs. We get there safely, and then we say we’ll get an Uber to go all the way back where we came from, and we wanted to be dropped off at the hotel, but as we got close to it, the streets were blocked, and no one would let us through, and what happened is there was two blocks, and I regret that I made this decision, but I said we’re gonna walk the two blocks,” he said.
“We walked one block, but as we walked one block, we could see some police in the distance, but we also saw a mob of about 30 people marching and yelling. They all of a sudden saw me, right as we got to the police, unfortunately, or I don’t think we would have survived. We got to the policeman, and the policeman I don’t think recognized me,” Paul said.
“And as they came closer, they were shouting my name, and the crowd doubled to 60, and then it doubled again to 120, and as they were surrounding us and it got closer and closer and everybody kept pushing back, the policemen were forming a barricade with their bodies and I whispered to the policeman, ‘They know who I am. You’ve got to get reinforcements. It’s going to get worse,’” the senator said.
“He called for reinforcements, but we didn’t get any reinforcements. We waited, but the crowd was getting bigger and bigger and pushing in. They were yelling threats. They were trying to push the police over to get to me. They were grabbing at us, and it got worse and worse and worse, and then finally, we decided to make a move. I said, We’ve got to move. If there’s not reinforcement we have to try to get to the hotel,’ which was another block, and they were shouting threats you know to us, to kill us, to hurt us, but they’re also threats saying shout, shouting ‘Say her name. Breonna Taylor,’ he said.
Paul pointed out the irony of the encounter, because he is the author of the “Justice for Breonna Taylor Act,” which prohibits no-knock warrants that allow law enforcement “to forcibly enter a home without announcing their authority or purpose.”
“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, 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, and they were shouting and screaming, and just really these people were unhinged, but I can’t tell you how I’m not sure we would have made it,” the senator said.
“So as we’re walking sort of surrounded by the police, they’re attempting to push the police over to get to me, so at one point they push a policeman backwards. He stumbles, and he’s trying to catch his balance, and I catch the back of his flak jacket to stabilize him and you know make sure he’s okay, because he’s our defense. I mean If he’s down, the mob’s loose on us, and you’ve seen the pictures of what they do to you,” he said.
Paul said that if the police are defunded, the nation will become Portland, a city still plagued by violence from protesters.
“If the police are not there, if you defund the police, if we become Portland, if America becomes Portland, what’s going to happen is people are going to be pummeled and kicked in the head and left senseless on the curb,” the senator said.
“That would have happened to us. I promise you had we not had the D.C. Police to support us, we are thankful we have police, and we’ve got to wake up. We can’t have the whole country. We can’t have Joe Biden rule the country and have no police. I mean, we can’t walk down the street in D.C. safely now. That’s how bad it is,” he said.
Paul said he has yet to hear former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) condemn the violence. He suggested someone might be paying protesters to travel out of state to incite the violence.
“We were unharmed, but you know it’s still going on this morning. There’s still mobs in the street blocking the streets, and I know it sounds like over-the-top to say that people from out of town, but I think we’re going to find out that these people are hired and from out of town specifically in our case. I believe they 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, but we can’t live this way. It’s getting worse and worse. I like being free to be able to walk out and go for a walk in the park. We cannot go outside now,” the senator said.
“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,” Paul said.
All of these failed cities Democrats have run, the president said in his speech, 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,” he added.
Paul said protesters threatened to kill him, and if they were knocked to the ground, they might have been. The senator said people even followed them into the hotel. He thanked the police for saving their lives.
When asked whether prominent Republicans need to have security just to walk the streets of D.C. or other major cities, Paul said, “Probably, yes, from now on. I don’t feel it at home. At home, people are so friendly. I can go to the grocery store, and I want to live, you know, the life of a normal person where I go to the grocery store and buy groceries or stop at the Minute Mart, and at home I do feel that, but this also isn’t normal. There’s something going on here. This is like the FBI needs to be Involved, because this is an organized interstate racket.”
The senator said that some of the protesters who attacked him weren’t from D.C., and the only way to find out who is paying for their travel is to arrest and question them.
“My feeling is that there is interstate criminal traffic being paid for across state lines, but you won’t know it unless you arrest them. Otherwise, you just think oh, these are some normal hoodlums from a big city. I promise you that at least some of the members and the people who attacked us were not from D.C. They flew here on a plane,” Paul said.
“They’ve all got fresh, new clothes, and they were paid to be here. It is a crime to do that, and it needs to be traced. The FBI needs to investigate but the only way you can do it is you have to arrest people, and usually we say, oh, well you didn’t get hurt so we’re not going to arrest them. They were inciting a riot and they would have killed us had the police not been there,” the senator said.
“They all need to be arrested, and I’m not saying forever, but they need to be arrested, questioned. They need to say, ‘Where are you staying,’ and the bills need to be subpoenaed by a judge to say who paid for your bill? How did you get here on a plane, and staying in a fancy hotel, and yet you’re acting like a criminal?” Paul said.
“Something’s going on here, and it’s much bigger than people think, but the bottom line is we can’t let the United States become Portland, and that’s what my fear is, that the United States is going to be on fire if we have no police, and look, I’ve been for reform,” the senator said.
Paul has authored 22 criminal justice reforms, but the protesters didn’t know that.
They were yelling at him, “We’re not going to let you go alive unless you’ll say out loud you’re for criminal justice reform,’ and I’m like, ‘You idiot. You are so dense that you have no idea that I’ve been a leading advocate for criminal justice reform, with President Obama, with President Trump, and you’re going to try to kill me, and I’ve been trying to help the problems?” Paul said.
“And so this is what’s sad, but it’s such lawlessness if we have this kind of lawlessness, I would say people are going to get killed. People have been killed. You know, the former police chief, his story was so sorrowful to listen to his wife that was killed in St. Louis. The little girl, Sequoia Turner, eight years old, was shot in the middle of the day in Atlanta because they took a wrong turn, but they had let the mob take over a street corner, armed. We can’t let our cities be taken over by these marauders and thugs,” he said.
