Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Greg Nash/AP Images
- The Canadian trucker protests over COVID-19 vaccine mandates have caused massive traffic jams across major trade routes.
- Sen. Rand Paul said he is ‘all for’ similar trucker blockades in the US
- Homeland Security warned that a US trucker convoy protest could start Super Bowl weekend in California.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul said he is “all for” trucker blockades in the US similar to the demonstrations in Canada over COVID-19 rules, which has shut down major trade routes.
“I’m all for it,” the Kentucky lawmaker said in an interview with The Daily Signal on Thursday. “Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.”
Canadian truckers are protesting various public-health measures, particularly COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and have blocked major arteries across the US-Canada border.
The protests caused the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit, Michigan with Ontario, Canada, to be shut down on Monday. The bridge has since reopened from Canada to the US, but traffic into Canada from Detroit is still blocked.
The convoy has garnered right-wing support in the US, with Fox News applauding the truckers and, now, Paul urging similar action in the US.
“I hope the truckers do come to America. I hope they clog up cities,” Paul, who has long opposed mask rules and vaccine requirements, said in the interview. “We’re seeing a break in the dam now. Several Democratic governors are finally sort of relinquishing.”
Governors in several states, including New York and California, have announced plans to relax or lift mask mandates.
“What they’re finding is, moms and dads are upset about this,” Paul said. “They’re not just Republican. Everybody’s upset about this. They’re annoyed that their little kids have to be in a mask.”
Similar protests could happen during Super Bowl weekend, The Department of Homeland Security warned early in the week, starting in California as early as mid-February then traveling across the country and ending up in Washington by mid-March.
The department said they had “received reports of a convoy of truckers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said on Wednesday, there is no “legitimacy” to the trucker convoy threat, though security measures have been ramped up.
Rochelle Walensky, the director of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has continued to recommend face-coverings indoors.
