St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters give dark warning in convention address

The white St. Louis couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home used their Republican National Convention address to paint a dark picture of violence and riots coming to suburban neighborhoods if Democrats are elected.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who have been criminally charged in connection with the June incident, took shots at the Democratic Party throughout their remarks, with Mark McCloskey saying that “the Democrats have brought us nothing but destruction.”

“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” Patricia McCloskey said during her opening remarks.

Mark McCloskey accused the Democrats of “no longer” seeing the “government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens.”

He also slammed Democratic House nominee Cori Bush, who led the Black Lives Matter protests outside his home before she won her primary earlier this month, calling her a “Marxist liberal activist.”

“These radicals are not content with marching in the streets,” he said. “They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want to take over. They want power.”

Patricia McCloskey accused Democrats and Democratic nominee Joe Biden of wanting to “abolish the suburbs” by ending single-family home zoning, which she said would “bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into now-thriving suburban neighborhoods.”

The arguments echoed those of President Trump against housing desegregation efforts and low-income housing projects that have channeled decades of racist attacks on such developments.

“These are the policies coming to a neighborhood near you,” she said. “So make no mistake, no matter where you live, your family will not be same in the radical Democrats’ America.”

“When we don’t have basic safety and security in our communities, we’ll never be free to build a brighter future for ourselves, for our children or for our country,” she added. “That’s what’s at stake in this election, and that’s why we must reelect Donald Trump.”

Mark and Patricia McCloskey: “If you stand up for yourself and the values this country was founded on, the mob, spurred on by their allies in the media, will try to destroy you.” #RNC2020 #RepublicanConvention pic.twitter.com/fvWOfaQBd3

— The Hill (@thehill) August 25, 2020

The McCloskeys focused on a central theme of Trump’s reelection campaign to frame a Democratic president as dangerous for American families and leading to more protests.

The couple had been featured in a Trump campaign virtual event and applauded by conservatives after footage showed them defending their house by pointing guns at demonstrators in June. Both were charged with felonies for unlawful use of a weapon.