Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday sounded the alarm on the political rhetoric coming from some lawmakers, warning it could lead to violence or even death.
"I really worry that someone is going to be killed and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation ... they have to realize that they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence," Paul said in an interview with a Kentucky radio station.
Paul spoke of the June 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was among five people who were shot by a politically motivated gunman. Additionally, he was the victim of a violent assault from his neighbor last year, which left him with six broken ribs, lung damage, and multiple bouts of pneumonia.
"These are people that are unstable. We don't want to encourage them,” he continued. “We have to somehow ratchet it down and say we're not encouraging them that violence is ever OK.”
Paul’s wife, Kelley, penned an open letter to Sen. Cory Booker last week calling on the New Jersey Democrat to reconsider his advice to supporters to “get up in the face of some congresspeople.”
“I think what people need to realize, that when people like [Sen.] Cory Booker say ‘get up in their face,’ he may think that that's OK,” Paul said when asked about those remarks. “But what he doesn't realize is that for about every thousandth person that might want to get up in your face, one of them is going to be unstable enough to commit violence.”
Paul’s concern came the same day Hillary Clinton said “you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.”