A Rand Paul supporter stomped on the head of a MoveOn activist who was protesting outside of last night’s Kentucky Senate debate between Paul and his Democratic opponent Jack Conway. The volunteer was trying to give Paul a satirical award from “RepublicCorp”—to highlight corporate contributions to his campaign—when she was assaulted. Here’s Politico with the details:
Just minutes before the candidates were slated to face off in Lexington, MoveOn.org representative Lauren Valle was walking through the crowd of Paul boosters with a sign when she was grabbed by several men, one of whom pulled a blonde wig off her head while another pushed her to the curb and stomped on her face.
“These supporters were not very nice to me and my message, which is the same as everyone else—I just wanted to get out here with a sign, but I got my head stepped on,” Valle told a reporter from Louisville’s Fox41, trying to regain her breath. “I have a bit of a headache.
A local TV news crew also caught footage of the attack, which you can watch here.
There haven’t been any arrests yet, and it’s unclear whether anyone will be charged. But apparently it wasn’t the only scuffle at the event. TPM flags a Kentucky Post story citing a separate incident in which “a Conway supporter stepped on the foot of a female Rand supporter, who recently had foot surgery.” It’s unclear whether the second incident was intentional, but the victim says she plans to file charges. Neither incident speaks too well of the candidates’ supporters, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that head-stomping trumps foot-stomping in terms of eyebrow-raising violence, and Rand Paul’s campaign can’t be thrilled that this all went down just a week before the election.
