Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) wife, Kelley Paul, penned a CNN OpEd on Saturday detailing the intimidation tactics and threats their family has received from the Left. Her OpEd was an open letter to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who had previously encouraged liberal supporters to threaten and intimidate politicians on the Right.
Senator Booker, Rand has worked with you to co-sponsor criminal justice reform bills. He respects you, and so do I. I would call on you to retract your statement. I would call on you to condemn violence, the leaking of elected officials' personal addresses (our address was leaked from a Senate directory given only to senators), and the intimidation and threats that are being hurled at them and their families.
Sincerely,
Kelley Paul
Mrs. Paul sat down with Breitbart News' Amanda House to discuss what these threats have meant for her family. Recently, Sen. Paul's information was "doxxed," meaning it was publicly shared. Someone realized his private cell phone number and home address. Once this information was released, he had to change his phone number. They also updated their home's security system.
According to Mrs. Paul, she has always felt safe until recently.
“It’s bizarre. I’ve never been like this in my whole life. … We used to never even lock our doors, and now that has all changed. Even going out to dinner in D.C., last night, you worry. You hope that people aren’t going to come up and just start screaming at you," she told House.
Now, she sleeps with a loaded gun by her bed, especially when she's home alone because her husband is in Washington, D.C.
“Words do matter, and there are so many, frankly, unhinged and unstable people out there, and when they hear someone on their side telling them, ‘Get up in their face,’ they take that literally, and they think that gives them a license to be very aggressive, be harassing, throw people out of restaurants, and I don’t think anybody wants to live in a country like that,” Paul explained.
"It does scare me that there's gonna be somebody that is really unstable that takes that message a step further and that something terrible happens to someone." —@KelleyAshbyPaul pic.twitter.com/xH2ivIJDBH
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 9, 2018