#RNC 2020: Viral St. Louis gun-wielding couple boosts Trump, bashes Dems

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Mark and Patricia McCloskey
2020 Republican National Committee via AP

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple caught on video pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in June, endorsed President Trump as the law-and-order candidate Monday at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

“You’ve seen us on your TV screens and Twitter feeds. You know that we’re not the kind of people who back down,” said Mark McCloskey. “Thankfully, neither is Donald Trump.

“President Trump will defend the God-given right of every American to protect their homes and their families.”

The McCloskeys shot to viral fame in June, when they were caught on camera brandishing firearms — he an AR-style rifle, she a handgun — at BLM demonstrators making a scene near their St. Louis home amid nationwide unrest sparked by the Minneapolis death of George Floyd.

Mark McCloskey, a lawyer, has accused the protesters of trespassing onto private property, and said that he feared a “storming of the Bastille” and insisted that he was a victim “of terrorism.”

“Whether it’s the defunding of police, ending cash bail so criminals can be released back out on the streets the same day to riot again, or encouraging anarchy and chaos on our streets, it seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals, but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens,” said Mark McCloskey Monday night.

“Not a single person in the out-of-control mob you saw at our house was charged with a crime,” he said. “But you know who was? We were.”

Police seized McCloskey’s rifle and the couple was criminally charged, but Missouri’s State Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in July that he was moving to dismiss the case, saying that the “political prosecution” could have “a chilling effect on Missourians’ exercising the right to self-defense.”

“These radicals are not content with marching in the streets,” said Mark McCloskey. “They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want to take over. They want power. This is [Democratic nominee] Joe Biden’s party. These are the people who will be in charge of your future and the future of your children.”

Patricia McCloskey echoed the sentiment.

“Make no mistake, no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America,” she said.

“America is such a great country that not only do you have the right to own a gun and use it defend yourself, but thousands of Americans will offer you free advice on how to use it,” she continued, tongue-in-cheek. “What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country.”