Sen. Rand Paul, who suffered serious injuries when he was attacked by a neighbor, was verbally assaulted on Friday by two New Yorkers while eating lunch in a California restaurant.
One was fairly calm but the other one went ballistic.
Sergio Gor, who serves as deputy chief of staff for the Kentucky Republican, posted a short video of part of the confrontation on Twitter.
“While having lunch with @RandPaul in California, we got verbally assaulted by these aggressive libs complaining about incivility,” Gor wrote. “Check out the vid! #unhinged.”
At the beginning of the video, a man says he’s “not being rude” and declares he has “a right to speak” to Paul because he’s a public official.
Then a woman steps into view, flipping her middle finger to the camera. She, too, is filming with her phone, then angrily says, “You just ran into two people from New York, kiddo, and we’re not putting up with your Republican bullshit!”
The man then tries to calm the situation down, saying “All I am saying is that while you and I possibly, probably, don’t have much in common politically, all right? We are Americans.”
Paul wrote on Twitter that “The left blames incivility on @realDonaldTrump. Watch this video and decide who the rude ones are,” and attached the video.
The left blames incivility on @realDonaldTrump. Watch this video and decide who the rude ones are… https://t.co/qtEx0wLH2A
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 18, 2019
The confrontation came the same day as the release of an audio clip from Project Veritas. In the clip, CNN political director David Chalian urged the news team to get “in their faces” of all Republican senators every day — whether at work or at home.
“I think we have to be in their faces of all 53 Republican senators on as much of a daily basis as possible, whether they’re at home or on the hill, asking each one of them, is it okay for the President of the United States to apply pressure to a foreign country in hopes of getting a domestic political opponent investigated?” Chalian says.
It’s not the first time angry leftists have confronted Republican officials.
In October 2018, four restaurant patrons confronted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was dining with his wife at Louisville’s Havana Rumba restaurant.
“Why don’t you get out of here? Why don’t you leave the entire country?” a man shouted at the couple.
In June 2018, then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant by the owner because she works for the Trump administration. The incident took place at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia.
A few days later, protesters swarmed around Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s home, besieging her family, chanting “no justice, no sleep,” and playing the cries of immigrant children on loudspeakers, The Washington Times reported.
Protesters outside Nielsen’s home were apparently displeased that Nielsen and the Trump administration insist on enforcing immigration laws, even as the administration reversed its policy on separating detained adults from their minor children while they await an asylum hearing.