Mark McCloskey, who with his wife Patricia pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges on Thursday in connection to holding guns as protesters walked past their St. Louis home last year, told Newsmax Friday that now it's time to move forward with his campaign for the Senate.
"We saved the city of St. Louis the expense of pursuing this nonsense, and then we'll move forward," McCloskey said on Newsmax's "National Report," explaining that he and his wife had faced felony charges that "could have landed us four years in the slammer."
McCloskey said the charges were lowered to his being charged instead with "a new crime which basically said I purposely placed other people in the apprehension of imminent physical harm. Well, by gosh, I did. I mean, that was the whole point of the guns. You stand out there with the guns. You make people worried that they might get shot and they back up."
He added that when the judge asked if he would do the same thing again, "I said sure, and I'd do it again."
McCloskey was fined $750, and his wife, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment, was ordered to pay $2,000, and he told Newsmax that he and his wife indeed had "every intention" of placing the protesters in fear of physical injury "because that's what the guns were for."
The judge ordered the two weapons taken away, but McCloskey said the guns were actually taken last July after the incidents took place.
He said he thinks the handgun his wife was using should be "melted down" but he had asked if the AR-15 he was wielding that day could be donated to be auctioned off for charity because it has "some historical value" and would have raised "significant money."
However, the new prosecutor did not want that to happen and the judge sided with him, said McCloskey, "so, unfortunately, it's going to get melted down as well."
McCloskey said he does have more guns, and he plans to "go out and buy another AR-15" as soon as the court clears his record and he's no longer under indictment."
The guilty plea also won't hurt the Senate race, said McCloskey. Although there has been some talk that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson might pardon the couple, McCloskey told Newsmax he doesn't know if that will happen but he would appreciate getting the Class C misdemeanor off his record.
The plea also will not affect McCloskey's rights to keep his law license or purchase or own any other guns.
He also denied claims that his neighborhood is not diverse.
"The gentleman that lives across the street to me is a Black gentleman," said McCloskey. "His family has been there since 1970. The neighbors immediately to my west are a mixed-race family. Across the street to me, to my right, is a couple of gay gentlemen. It's always been a very diverse neighborhood and any attempt to portray my neighborhood as some kind of white supremacist stronghold is just pure nonsense."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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