The Missouri man who, with his wife, pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters walking past his house in St. Louis to the mayor’s mansion has announced a run to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.
In an angry and inaccurate video released via Twitter Tuesday night, Mark McCloskey claimed, “An angry mob marched to destroy my home and kill my family, I took a stand to defend them. I am a proven fighter against the mob. When the mob comes to destroy our home, our state, our nation— I’ll defend it. I will NEVER BACK DOWN. Help me FIGHT BACK.”
A link follows, going directly to a financial contributions website.
In the video, McCloskey claims that “our nation is under attack. Big tech, big business, the swamp in D.C. are all working together to destroy our God-given freedom, our culture, our heritage.”
Most of his campaign announcement video was not shot in front of the massive mansion he and his wife, Patricia, stood with guns drawn last June, but instead, a small, rural-looking shack. Other scenes were of abandoned homes overlaid with text that read, “The future of America.”
“Mark my words, the mob is coming for all of us, cancel culture, the poison of critical race theory, the lie of systemic racism backed up by the threat of mob violence,” said McCloskey, 64. “Attacks on the second amendment, erosion of election integrity are all intended to design all that we hold near and dear.”
“You can count on me,” he continued, “to defend our God-given Constitutional rights as I have been defending them for over 40 years: Your right to keep and bear arms, freedom of speech, to own and defend your own private property.”
The attorney vowed to “never stop fighting” and says he has traveled as “a spokesperson for President Trump.”
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McCloskey was given air time on Tucker Carlson Tonight after his announcement Tuesday, where he said, “God came knocking on my door last summer disguised as an angry mob, and it really did wake me up.”
Both McCloskeys were indicted last summer on felony weapons charges after brandishing firearms at protesters demonstrating in the wake of Minneapolis Police officers’ killing of George Floyd, and many Twitter users reminded him. “They were marching past your house, but you, being the lunatic that you are, ran out into your yard to menace them with a rifle,” one wrote.
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As previously reported, at the time of the incident last summer, protesters were headed to the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson, who had read the names and addresses of citizens who’d submitted a letter to her office demanding she defund the city’s police department.
Krewson eventually chose not to run for another term, paving the way for the eventual election of progressive Tishaura Jones, the city’s first Black woman mayor, earlier this year. Mayor Jones recently redirected $4 million in funds from St. Louis Metro Police to hire social workers and create community policing.
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