Conservatives are pushing new video of Monday’s stomping incident in Kentucky, which they say proves MoveOn.org’s Lauren Valle was trying to “assault” Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul before Paul volunteers wrestled her to the ground and Paul’s Bourbon County coordinator Tim Profitt stepped on her head.
“As the video clearly demonstrates, Valle was there to do more than simply ‘hold a sign,’” a RedState blogger who posted the new video today wrote. “Paul supporters were not reacting to a mere dislike of her message.”
The blogger writes that “none of that is any excuse, nor even mitigating circumstances, when it comes to Profitt stomping on Valle’s head,” but says the tape shows that any notion that Valle was “the victim of an angry mob who simply ‘didn’t like her message’” is “demonstrably false.”
What do we learn from the new video? Not a lot. It depicts the chaotic clash of supporters outside the Senate debate in Lexington that preceded the stomping, just as all witness accounts and Valle’s own recounting have said. Conservatives touting the video say it shows Valle “attempting to assault” Paul but it also appears she was getting pushed from behind.
Regardless of what the clip adds to the story, the fact remains that Profitt stomped on her head, leaving him open to criminal investigation and the Paul campaign open to criticism and public shaming.
As the RedState blogger writes, “Let us begin with what should be obvious and unnecessary to discuss: don’t stomp on anyone’s head. There are no mitigating circumstances to be presented in this article or video.”
Check out the smoking gun clip here:
Update:
MoveOn’s Ilyse Hogue sends this response to the new video:
“Lauren made no secret of the fact that she was trying to get a picture with Rand Paul and her satirical sign at this event. If the candidate, or any of his supporters, felt threatened by a girl with a poster, once they had pulled her away from the car, the threat had passed. Nothing justifies the violence of her head being stomped on the curb once she was on the ground. This is nothing less than the men involved, and the Paul campaign, once again trying to justify an obvious assault once they have been exposed.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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