Years after leftists celebrated the neighbor who tackled Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), cracking his ribs and giving him pneumonia, the senator still faces death threats and may have just survived an assassination attempt. The FBI and Capitol Police are investigating a suspicious package containing white powder that an unknown suspect mailed to Paul’s home in Kentucky.
The outside of the envelope had a picture of a bandaged Paul with a gun pointed at his head and this quote: “I’ll finish what your neighbor started you motherf***er,” Fox News reported on Monday.
“I take these threats immensely seriously,” Paul said in a statement to Politico. “As a repeated target of violence, it is reprehensible that Twitter allows C-list celebrities to encourage violence against me and my family. Just this weekend Richard Marx called for violence against me and now we receive this powder filled letter.”
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Marx, a singer and songwriter known for “Endless Summer Nights” and “Right Here Waiting,” promised to reward Rene Boucher, the neighbor who put Rand Paul in the hospital.
“I’ll say it again: If I ever meet Rand Paul’s neighbor I’m going to hug him and buy him as many drinks as he can consume,” Marx posted on Twitter Sunday afternoon. As of Tuesday, Twitter has not removed the tweet for inciting or glorifying violence.
Marx was celebrating Boucher, who attacked Paul from behind on his own property in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Paul was wearing headphones at the time, so Boucher caught him completely by surprise. The senator suffered five rib fractures, including three displaced fractures, and later required medical attention for pneumonia.
Paul has repeatedly found himself in the crosshairs of political violence. He got caught up in the shooting that threatened the life of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). He has condemned the climate of political violence that encouraged a terrorist to mark congressmen — and the brave police defending them — for death. Scalise and Paul survived, but two police officers did not. Boucher’s attack came mere months after the shooting.
After the Boucher assault, a man threatened to kill Rand Paul and chop up his family with an axe.
Also after Boucher’s attack, Democrats joked about the prospect of violence against the Kentucky senator. Then-Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes joked about it in a speech. MSNBC commentator Katie Hunt called Boucher’s attack one of her “favorite stories.” Cher, Bette Midler, and others have praised Boucher on Twitter. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) retweeted a message that suggested Paul deserved to get attacked.
When the sender of the mysterious package wrote that he or she would “finish what your neighbor started,” that was clearly a death threat.
Paul’s wife, Kelley, spoke out about the most recent round of violent threats.
“I got the death threat letter and called the FBI. This kind of violent threat is fomented against Rand daily by [the leftist PAC Really American], a Dem PAC that pays thugs like [Majid Padellan] to celebrate the assault that nearly killed Rand. [The Democratic National Committee] ignores. [Richard Marx] was inciting more violence,” Kelley Paul tweeted. “I am sick of the hatred and vitriol from people who boast of their ’empathy and compassion’ in their bios.”
“Rand will continue to stand up for our constitutionally protected liberties. He will keep questioning the ‘experts.’ We won’t be intimidated. And yes, we have guns,” she concluded.
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Americans have every right to disagree with each other politically, but this kind of political violence is beyond the pale. All Americans should condemn such attacks, and when leftists celebrate violence against Republicans like Rand Paul, they further tear at the edges of America’s crumbling public trust.
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