Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) wife ripped the media on Wednesday for its coverage of the alleged assault against the senator earlier this month, saying some outlets have “victimized” him a second time.
“It is incredibly hurtful that some news outlets have victimized Rand a second time as he struggles to recover, delighting in hateful headlines like ‘Not A Perfect Neighbor,’ and concocting theories about an ‘ongoing dispute,’ based on nothing more than speculation from an attention-seeking person with no knowledge of anything to do with us,” Kelley Paul wrote in an op-ed for CNN.
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Rand Paul returned to the Senate last week after suffering six broken ribs when his neighbor, Rene Boucher, allegedly attacked him in early November.
Boucher, Paul’s neighbor for 17 years, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a fourth-degree assault charge. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted and is due back in court Nov. 30 for a pretrial hearing.
Boucher’s lawyer has described the feud as being over a “trivial matter” not related to politics.
Some reports have suggested the incident stemmed from an argument over landscaping, but Paul, his wife and his staff have pushed back, calling it a “blindside, violent attack.”
“The only ‘dispute’ existed solely in the attacker’s troubled mind, until, on a beautiful autumn day, he ran down the hill on our property and slammed his body into Rand’s lower back as he stood facing away, wearing noise canceling headphones to protect his ears from the lawnmower,” Kelley Paul wrote.
“This has been a terrible experience; made worse by the media’s gleeful attempts to blame Rand for it, ridiculing him for everything from mowing his own lawn to composting,” she added.