Real Clear Politics "CNN's Chris Cuomo immediately deemed the St. Louis couple that faced off with Black Lives Matters protesters encroaching on their property as a racial incident in a gotcha-style interview with Mark McCloskey, the husband, on Tuesday's edition of his CNN program.
" 'How do you feel about becoming the face of political resistance to the Black Lives Matter movement?" was Cuomo's first question.
" 'First of all, that’s a completely ridiculous statement," McCloskey responded. "I'm not the face of anything opposing to Black Lives Matters movement. I was a person scared for my life who was protecting my wife, my home, my hearth, my livelihood. I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate. I didn't care what color they were. I didn't care what their motivation was. I was frightened. I was assaulted and I was in imminent fear that they would run me over, kill me, burn my house."
"McCloskey continued, "To give you context, on June 2nd, I watched the city burn, I watched the 7-11 get smashed in, looted and burned for 40 minutes on live television with nobody showing up to do anything. I realized at that time, we're on our own, when bad things happen, they unpredictably turn really bad, really fast. That same night, retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn was murdered. These things get very bad very quickly. And when those people came through the gate, when it was a mob, I didn't take the time to see their birth certificates or anything else, I was defending my life, my house, my wife and what I spent 32 years building there."
"Throughout the interview, Cuomo continually doubted McCloskey's fear that his and his wife's lives were at risk and attempted to poke holes in how much of a security threat the protesters actually posed. He told Cuomo the reason why the protesters weren't able to get the steps of his home is not because they weren't going to loot it, it is because he and his wife brandished their weapons." . . .
" 'How do you feel about becoming the face of political resistance to the Black Lives Matter movement?" was Cuomo's first question.
" 'First of all, that’s a completely ridiculous statement," McCloskey responded. "I'm not the face of anything opposing to Black Lives Matters movement. I was a person scared for my life who was protecting my wife, my home, my hearth, my livelihood. I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate. I didn't care what color they were. I didn't care what their motivation was. I was frightened. I was assaulted and I was in imminent fear that they would run me over, kill me, burn my house."
"McCloskey continued, "To give you context, on June 2nd, I watched the city burn, I watched the 7-11 get smashed in, looted and burned for 40 minutes on live television with nobody showing up to do anything. I realized at that time, we're on our own, when bad things happen, they unpredictably turn really bad, really fast. That same night, retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn was murdered. These things get very bad very quickly. And when those people came through the gate, when it was a mob, I didn't take the time to see their birth certificates or anything else, I was defending my life, my house, my wife and what I spent 32 years building there."
"Throughout the interview, Cuomo continually doubted McCloskey's fear that his and his wife's lives were at risk and attempted to poke holes in how much of a security threat the protesters actually posed. He told Cuomo the reason why the protesters weren't able to get the steps of his home is not because they weren't going to loot it, it is because he and his wife brandished their weapons." . . .
