The name Mark McCloskey may not ring a bell, but maybe this does: He and his wife Patricia were the wealthy St. Louis, Missouri couple who brandished guns at BLM protesters last summer. They were almost brought up on felony charges. Instead, they became right-wing celebrities. They even appeared at the RNC, filing the looniest speech that wasn’t delivered by Don Jr.’s girlfriend. And now he’s running for Senate, because of course he is.
As per NBC News, McCloskey announced his candidacy for Missouri’s Senate on the most obvious place: Tucker Carlson Tonight. “I’ve always been a Republican, but I’ve never been a politician,” he told the host, obscuring the fact that he and his wife said they supported the protests before they became conservative superstars. “But, you know, God came knocking on my door last summer disguised as an angry mob, and it really did wake me up.”
McCloskey even had a series of campaign videos at the ready:
An angry mob marched to destroy my home and kill my family, I took a stand to defend them.
I am a proven fighter against the mob
When the mob comes to destroy our home, our state, our nation— I’ll defend it
I will NEVER BACK DOWN
Help me FIGHT BACK
https://t.co/8N8o1yxN6C pic.twitter.com/jR8ieWdkCc
— Mark McCloskey (@Mark__McCloskey) May 19, 2021
In it, he accuses protesters — who never actually trod upon his property — of aiming to “destroy my house and kill my family.” It goes downhill from there. “Our nation is under attack,” he says, singling out “Big Tech, Big Business,” as well as that “swamp” Donald Trump was supposed to drain but wound up expanding.
There’s also more dog whistles, this time about “our culture and our heritage,” as well as attacks on “cancel culture,” “Critical Race Theory,” and “the lies of systemic racism.” He also promises to “defend” Americans from “the mob” over shots of him walking around a farm with a chainsaw as though he was Leatherface. (The McCloskeys live in a giant mansion in a gated community in St. Louis, by the way.)
Should McCloskey win the open seat in his state, he needn’t worry about doing a job in the public sector having never held public office prior. After all, Marjorie Taylor Greene does nothing but harass colleagues and she still gets a steady paycheck.
(Via NBC News)