Sen. Rand Paul, the morning after he and his wife were surrounded by protesters as they headed back to their hotel from President Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the White House, said he thinks there is "interstate criminal traffic" going across state lines to stage violent incidents in the nation's cities.
"My feeling is that there is interstate criminal traffic being paid for across state lines, but you won't know it unless you arrest them," the Kentucky Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "There's something going on here. The FBI needs [to be] involved."
Paul said he does not feel threatened in his home state, "as people are so friendly," but he does not think some of the people who attacked him and his wife were from Washington, D.C.
"If you're inciting a riot, that's a crime, but if you're paying someone to incite a riot, that person needs to go to jail as well," said Paul.
He also accused the "mob" of being voters for Democrat nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
"If we allow them to take over the White House, we are going to become Portland, the country will be on fire," said Paul. "We have to have law and order and we have to support the police. I can't say that strong enough."
He said some of the people who were in the crowd were yelling that they would not let him go alive unless he said he was for criminal justice reform.
"I'm like, you idiot," Paul said. "You are so dense that you have no idea that I've been a leading advocate for criminal justice reform, with President [Barack] Obama, with President Trump and you're going to try to kill me."
Paul said he and his wife were walking to the nearby Trump International Hotel because the street was so packed with protesters. They were walking the final two blocks because their Uber ride couldn't get through when they were attacked, he added.
"They were trying to push the police over to get to me," he said. "They were shouting threats to us, to kill us, to hurt us."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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