News of the couple’s expected appearance, first reported by the Washington Post, comes as Republicans prepare for an unorthodox convention, as part of efforts to encourage voters during a pandemic and go into the last three months of the campaign . Democrats kicked off their party’s national convention Monday in a night of programming with headline by former First Lady Michelle Obama, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. of New York, Andrew Cuomo, among others.
A Trump Victory spokesman and a Republican official confirmed to CNN later Monday that former Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, Andrew Pollack, the father of Parkland shooting victim Meadow Pollack, anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, Gov. of South Dakota Christ Noam and Pennsylvania Congress candidate Sean Parnell will also be among the speakers at the Republican convention. The lineup, which is still being formed, was first reported by Breitbart News.
The McCloskeys drew national attention in late June after they were seen in a viral video-shooting rifle outside their home in Protestants walking down a private street to demonstrate outside the residence of the mayor of St. Louis. Louis. The Missouri couple were accused in July of illegally using a weapon, a Class E crime.
The White House has defended it several times, with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany telling reporters at the time that President Donald Trump “said it was absolutely absurd what was happening to the McCloskeys.”
In videos obtained by CNN, Mark McCloskey holds a long rifle and Patricia McCloskey holds a gun as protesters, protesting Mayor Lyda Krewson’s decision to publish the names and addresses of people in favor of police reform, ran outside it house. Portland Place, the private street where the McCloskeys live, is near Krewson’s home.
Daniel Shular, a local reporter, took one of the videos and said he covered the entire roughly 10-minute incident. About 500 protesters, according to Shular, cut through Portland Place to bypass nearby neighborhoods that blocked access to the mayor’s house.
“A door next to the gate at Portland Place was unlocked and protesters went through it to cut through the neighborhood to get to Krewson’s house,” he told CNN.
That’s when Shular says the McCloskeys came out of the house with the firearm. At one point in Shular’s 31-second video, Patricia McCloskey points the handgun in the direction of Protestants. In several videos, it appears that McCloskeys and Protestants are exchanging words, but it is unclear what is being said.
Mark McCloskey defended his actions against the protesters, saying last month that he was “in dire fear that they would overpower me, kill me.”
“I was a person scared for my life, protecting my wife, my house, my hearth, my existence. I was a victim of a mob coming through the gate,” he told CN Cu’s Chris Cuomo at the time.
McCloskey claimed it was “ridiculous” to consider him the face of opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement after the incident.
“I did not indicate what color they were. I did not do what their motivation was,” he said. “I was scared. I was attacked.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting on the RNC speaker lineup.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Paul P. Murphy, Alisha Ebrahimji and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
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