Mark McCloskey, the lawyer from St. Louis who rose to fame last year after he and his wife held firearms outside their home while a large group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators neared their property, is considering a run for U.S. Senate.
McCloskey told Politico on Tuesday that he is interested in running for Missouri’s open Senate seat after Republican Sen. Roy Blunt retires.
“I can confirm that it’s a consideration, yes,” McCloskey told the outlet. He said that he does not have a date by which he will decide whether or not to run.
McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, gained national attention last year for using their own weapons to defend their home. He said during a local interview last year, “I went inside; I got a rifle … because as soon as I said ‘this is private property,’ those words enraged the crowd.”
“Horde, an absolute horde came through the smashed-down gates, coming right at the house,” Mark McCloskey recounted. “And then I stood out there, the only thing we said is, ‘This is private property, go back, private property, leave now.’ At that point, everybody got enraged, there were people wearing body armor.”
“One person pulled out [some] loaded pistol magazines and he clicked them together and he said, ‘You’re next,’” McCloskey continued. “We were threatened with our lives, threatened with the house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened. It was about as bad as it can get. You know, I really thought it was the storming of Bastille, that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it. It was a huge and frightening crowd and they broke in the gate and they were coming at us.”
Last year, Republicans stood by the couple’s actions as defending their home and property. The couple was indicted several months later on felony weapons and evidence tampering charges. They spoke in a pre-recorded video at the Republican National Convention about the situation.
“America is such a great country that not only do you have the right to own a gun and use it to defend yourself, but thousands of Americans will offer you free advice on how to use it, at least that’s what we experienced,” Patricia McCloskey said. “What you saw happened to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country. That’s what we want to speak to you about tonight.”
“Whether it’s the defunding of police, ending cash bails or criminals can be released back out on the streets the same day to riot again, or encouraging anarchy and chaos on our streets, it seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals, but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens,” Mark McCloskey said. “Not a single person in the out of control mob you saw at our house was charged with a crime, but you know who was? We were. They’ve actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home.”