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After exhibiting up in a marketing campaign advert for a infamous Republican Senate candidate, Vanilla Ice reassured followers that he didn’t conform to be concerned in any respect.
Mark McCloskey—the disgraced former lawyer who went viral after he and his spouse pointed weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters exterior their residence in St. Louis in June 2020—shared a promotional put up that includes Vanilla Ice’s identify and picture on Thursday.
“Be a part of #TeamMcCloskey in Inexperienced County for the Ozark Empire Truthful,” the put up learn, above photos of McCloskey and the rapper subsequent to one another. Under the pictures, a line added: “That includes Vanilla Ice and Ying Yang Twins.”
However on Thursday night, Vanilla Ice’s administration made it unequivocally clear that their shopper was not supporting McCloskey’s marketing campaign. “Vanilla Ice isn't taking sides on political points and is working to assist his household,” his managers advised The Kansas Metropolis Star. “Please make this recognized.”
In addition to Vanilla Ice and McCloskey not being affiliated, they’re not even showing on the honest talked about within the advert on the identical day. McCloskey will really seem two days after the rapper’s present.
McCloskey later clarified to native media that he didn’t have any relationship with the rapper—or the Ying Yang Twins, for that matter. “(We’re) merely saying that we’re going to be there at a time after they’re going to be there. No relationship by any means,” he advised the Star.
Alongside together with his spouse Patricia, McCloskey grew to become a right-wing trigger célèbre after his gun-toting stunt in 2020. The couple pleaded responsible to misdemeanor fees over the incident, however they had been finally pardoned by Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson. The couple additionally final month made an unsuccessful bid to get the Supreme Courtroom to overturn a choice that positioned their regulation licenses on probation.
McCloskey is now utilizing the BLM incident in his long-shot marketing campaign to change retiring Senator Roy Blunt within the state’s Republican main election in August.
Working with a slogan of “By no means Again Down,” McCloskey apparently describes his actions on the day the protesters walked previous his 18,000-square foot mansion within the opening of a marketing campaign video on his web site.
“When the indignant mob got here to destroy my home and kill my household, I took a stand in opposition to them,” he says. “Now I’m asking for the privilege to take that stand for all of us.”
The McCloskeys not solely went viral for his or her wildly lopsided response to a small, peaceable march passing by means of their rich neighborhood; additionally they demonstrated how little they knew about gun security. Mark, who was pictured carelessly holding the grip and handguard of his rifle, and Patricia, who had her finger on the set off of her tiny pistol, appeared to level their weapons at one another at one level.