Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) expressed support for trucker convoys potentially protesting COVID-19 restrictions in the U.S. as they have in Canada.
“I’m all for it,” Paul said in an interview with The Daily Signal, a publication run by the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.”
“And some of this, we started,” Paul said. “We put [COVID-19] mandates on truckers coming across the border from Canada so then they put mandates on, and the truckers are annoyed. They’re riding in a cab by themselves, most of them for eight, 10-hour long hauls, and they just want to do what they want to do. It’s their own business.”
“Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in Canada, which began as protests against COVID-19 mandates impacting truck drivers, have since spread to cities around the country and attracted support from some Americans.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned law enforcement partners earlier this week that U.S.-based truck drivers may stage similar demonstrations in support of the Canadian movement. The agency said it had received reports that a convoy is potentially planning to travel from California to Washington, D.C., and block roads in major U.S. cities to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic-related restrictions.
“It’d be great, but the thing is, it wouldn’t shut the city down because the government workers haven’t come to work in two years anyway,” Paul told The Daily Signal of a potential convoy traveling to the U.S. capital. “I don’t know if it’ll affect D.C. It’d be a nice change. We’d actually have some traffic.”
This is an excerpt from The Hill.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.