Republican
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said he wants trucker protests to come to the
United States as soon as this weekend to “clog up” major cities of
the country. Protests by truckers against COVID-19 mandates continue to disrupt Canada’s capital, block US-Canada border crossings and add to supply chain
headaches.

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Asked
about his thoughts on the convoy and the potential for it to spill over into
Los Angeles, home of Sunday’s Super Bowl, or into the nation’s capital, Paul
said Thursday that “it’d be great” if the anti-mandate,
truck-inspired protests popped in the United States to “clog things
up.”

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“I’m
all for it,” Paul, a longtime opponent to masking and vaccine mandates,
told the conservative media outlet. “Civil disobedience is a time-honored
tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, to you name it.
Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.”

“I
hope the truckers do come to America, and I hope they clog up cities,” he
added.

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The
protest in Canada started against the US and Canadian rules requiring truckers
crossing the border to be fully vaccinated. The protest has disrupted the
capital of Ottawa as part of a broader movement against mandates. Protests have
also chocked notable US-Canada border crossings, such as the Ambassador Bridge,
a key trade corridor linking Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, and inspired similar
protests abroad.

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The
threat of truckers potentially clogging US roads was raised on Tuesday when the
Department of Homeland Security distributed a bulletin to law enforcement
agencies. DHS warned that a convoy of protesting truckers “will
potentially begin in California as early as mid-February and arrive in
Washington, DC, as late as mid-March.”

The
American economy has already been suffering due to the ongoing protest. Workers
in the Michigan auto industry could lose up to $51 million in wages this week
due to the trucker protest at the US-Canada border, according to Anderson
Economic Group.

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Three
big US business groups have warned the protests are putting further stress on
an already struggling supply chain. In a joint statement earlier this week, the
US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and National Association of
Manufacturers called on the Canadian government “to act swiftly to address
the disruption to the flow of trade.” Auto industry trade groups also
warned the protests were causing “additional strain.”