A couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in St. Louis will play a part in next week’s Republican Convention.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who hit the headlines in June when they accosted a group of demonstrators on a private street armed with a rifle and handgun, have reportedly been scheduled to appear on behalf of the president.
GOP sources confirmed to the Washington Post that the couple had been booked for the largely virtual event, in an apparent attempt to energise the struggling Trump campaign.
Most major polls currently give Democrat candidate Joe Biden a commanding lead over the president.
Mr and Ms McCloskey were arrested following the incident on 28 June, when demonstrators marched past their home amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd.
The protesters had been heading towards the home of St Louis mayor Lyda Krewson to demand an end to police brutality.
Video from the scene showed the McCloskeys, who are both white, emerging from their Versailles-style mansion on Portland Place, waving guns and threatening the protesters.
St Louis governor, Mike Parson, defended the couple, saying they had “every right to defend” the property under the state’s “castle doctrine”.
A number of high-profile Republicans and president Trump also weighed in behind the couple, who claimed to have called the police before approaching the demonstrators with guns.
Trump’s White House press secretary said ”it is absolutely absurd, what is happening to the McCloskeys.”
The president, who has sought to position himself as an ardent defender of the Second Amendment throughout his term in office, also posted video of the incident on his Twitter.
The Missouri couple was charged in July with the unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony. They have since launched a donations website to help fund their legal battle.
Mr McCloskey defended his actions, saying that he feared for his life.
“I was a person scared for my life, protecting my wife, my home, my hearth, my livelihood. I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate,” he told CNN at the time.
