Josh Green flagged an incident that occurred outside of the Rand Paul-Jack Conway debate in Lexington, Kentucky Monday night that’s already dominating the news in Kentucky and could easily make headlines nationally.
As the candidates arrived, a group of Paul supporters pulled a female MoveOn member to the ground and held her there as another Paul supporter stomped on the back of her head and neck.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, “Lauren Valle of MoveOn.org approached Paul and tried to give him an “employee of the month award” from Republicorp…a fake business MoveOn created to symbolize what it says is the merger of the GOP and business interests controlling political speech.”
The whole thing was caught on video. Watch:
At the end of the clip, Valle is alert and speaking with the press. However, MoveOn’s political director Ilyse Hogue tells TPM that Valle is in the hospital and they’re awaiting word on her condition. We’ll get you more information when we have it.
We have a call out to the Lexington police department’s public affairs office for further comment. According to WTVQ, an assault report was filed but there have been no arrests.
In a separate incident, according to the Kentucky Post, “a Conway supporter stepped on the foot of a female Rand supporter, who recently had foot surgery. The woman was wearing a surgical boot, but after the injury, her incision was cut open. Police say she refused medical treatment and also filed an assault report.”
[TPM SLIDESHOW: TPM’s Day At ‘Fancy Farm’: Kentucky Pols Spar At Annual Political Kickoff Picnic]
Late update: The victim suffered a concussion and multiple sprains in the assault, according to MoveOn’s political director Ilyse Hogue. Police have thus far been unable to identify the perpetrators, but because the incident was caught on multiple cameras, they hope to make significant progress in the case today. MoveOn has called on Rand Paul to explicitly condemn the attack, but so far he hasn’t.
Later update: The man seen stomping the victim in the head has been identified as now-former Paul volunteer Tim Profitt. Victim Lauren Valle spoke to reporters this afternoon, telling them that the men who attacked her were familiar with her from other protests.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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