Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House to try and drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination — and afterward an angry mob of nearly 100 people attacked Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., and his police escort.
Paul said the “crazed mob” enveloped and physically attacked his and his wife’s escort just one block away from the White House, cursing and yelling for him to say the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor, who was killed in his state.
Paul thanked the Washington, D.C. police department for saving his life on social media.
Just got attacked by an angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House. Thank you to @DCPoliceDept for literally saving our lives from a crazed mob.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 28, 2020
Video of the assault quickly went viral.
Rand Paul just got chased by a crowd back to his hotel, after leaving the White House from Trump’s Republican Party Nomination #DC #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/h1kPcZG1jh
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 28, 2020
After the convention concluded, there were skirmishes as protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St. John’s Church near the newly-renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza. There were some arrests.
Videos also showed other attendees being aggressively confronted by protesters after leaving Trump’s event.
The demonstration was smaller than the violent unrest that rocked the nation’s capital this past spring after George Floyd died at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
Before Trump spoke, there was a brief standoff between police and demonstrators, who shouted anti-police slogans.
“Free the people, fight the power,” they chanted.
Protesters also set up a small guillotine as an homage to the Reign of Terror, when angry mobs in France murdered over 25,000 people — many decapitated or starved to death in prison without trial.
Later, a mob confronted a bus filled with people who had attended the convention. The crowd blocked the bus from leaving or turning around.
At one point, a person tried to force their way into the bus.
A woman opened the back door of the bus of RNC attendees and hopped inside #RNCConvention2020 #DC #DCProtest pic.twitter.com/Uar2cVbk7y
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 28, 2020
READ MORE: Mike Pence slams Biden, anarchy in RNC speech
The Associated Press contributed to this article