Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) voiced his support truckers protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates by blocking the U.S.-Canada border.
“I’m all for it,” Paul told The Daily Signal, a conservative publication. “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.”
The truckers’ protests began in defiance of the U.S. and Canada’s rule that truckers crossing the border must be fully vaccinated. Protests blocked major U.S.-Canada bridges, affecting Canadian cities, like the capital Ottawa as well as the U.S. supply chain. Anderson Economic Group reported that workers in the Michigan auto industry could lose up to $51 million in wages this week.
The Department of Homeland Security warned that the U.S. could see similar protests. They said that a group of truckers “will potentially begin in California as early as mid-February and arrive in Washington, D.C., as late as mid-March.”
“I hope the truckers do come to America, and I hope they clog up cities,” Paul added.
President Joe Biden spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. Trudeau expressed concern over the protests affecting a long line of companies and their employees by slowing down production and having to cut work hours, per The Hill.
“Some of this, we started,” Paul said. “We put (Covid-19) mandates on truckers coming across the border from Canada so then they put mandates on, and the truckers are annoyed. They’re riding in a cab by themselves, most of them for eight, 10-hour long hauls, and they just want to do what they want to do. It’s their own business.”
