In grievance-filled speech, St. Louis couple warn of chaos in the suburbs if Democrats elected

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple facing weapons charges for brandishing guns at protesters on their street, spoke on the opening night of the Republican National Convention to deliver a warning.

“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” the couple said Monday in a defiant speech from their home.

What ensued was a fear-based appeal to suburban voters as the couple rebuked the Black Lives Matter protesters at whom they waved guns from the steps of their mansion as “Marxist liberal activists” and “criminals.” The two had initially issued a statement of support for the racial justice movement through their lawyer as protests rocked the country earlier this summer.

The McCloskeys' speech, which mirrored racial rhetoric often used by Trump, was sandwiched on a grim opening night of the Republican convention by a series of speakers aimed at refuting accusations of racism against the president and swaying historically Democratic-leaning Black voters to take a chance on Trump.

“Not a single person in the out-of-control mob that you saw at our house was charged with a crime,” Mark McCloskey lamented about the June 28 incident. “But you know who was? We were. They actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home.”

The couple also advanced one of President Donald Trump’s talking points, falsely claiming that the policies of Democratic nominee Joe Biden would “abolish the suburbs” — and potentially create an opening for the scene that played out on their street to be replicated across the country.

Praising Trump for “smartly” ending what she described as “government overreach,” Patricia McCloskey decried efforts to do away with zoning for single family homes, asserting it would bring “low-quality apartments” and rising crime to “flourishing” suburban neighborhoods.

“Make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America,” she warned, echoing the fear-based approach adopted by Trump in recent months in a bid to win back the votes of white women who fled the GOP in droves during the 2018 midterms, helping to hand the House back to Democrats.

The pair also blasted Democratic criminal justice reform proposals like ending the use of cash bail and activists’ calls to curtail funding for police departments.

“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. He later cast Democrats as intolerant to opposing views and, arguing that “if you stand up for yourself, the mob, spurred on by allies in the media, will try to destroy you.”