3 speakers featured at GOP convention have been charged with crimes

A nurse who praised Donald Trump’s pandemic response at the Republican National Convention in August was arrested last week and charged with malicious unlawful assault after she allegedly shot a woman in the stomach, according to a local West Virginia television station.

The woman, Amy Johnson Ford, claimed self-defense in the shooting, according to WCHS, which also reported that the shooting victim is “doing well and has non-life-threatening injuries.”

Ford — who says she volunteered as a nurse in New York to help the city when its hospitals were overrun with COVID-19 patients — was selected to speak at the convention to help boost Trump’s image in the wake of his failed coronavirus response.

“As a healthcare professional, I can tell you without hesitation, Donald Trump’s quick action and leadership saved thousands of lives during COVID-19,” Ford said in her speech. Since the Republican convention, another 34,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States, with the death toll now standing at more than 214,000.

She is now the third person who spoke at the GOP convention to be charged with a crime since their address.

Ford joins Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who were charged on Oct. 6 with unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering after they aimed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched past their home.

The three GOP convention speakers charged with crimes last week comes even as the convention focused on “law and order,” with speakers warning Americans that they “won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

To date, no speakers at the Democratic convention have been arrested or charged with crimes.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.