Rand Paul Aide Licks Camera: David Chesley Ignites Internet With #LickGate [Video]
Political opponents may do strange things, but camera-licking could be a first.
In the YouTube video titled “Rand Paul Londonderry Town Hall 05-11-2015,” a staffer, reportedly named David Chesley, can be seen licking the lens of a broadcast camera that is in the process of preparing to record Paul speaking. The Kentucky senator wasn’t even speaking at the time of lick-gate.
The camera person who had their camera licked by the Rand operative belonged to American Bridge, the group that uploaded the video to YouTube. Their spokesperson, Ben Ray, explained that camera licking was a new type of blocking maneuver. The democratic tracker, as reported by ABC News, was doing what trackers usually do: recording a political opponent at a New Hampshire campaign event, hoping to get footage likely to use against Rand. Instead, the Republican presidential staffer provided camera-licking footage that is going viral for the opposite reasons.
A spokesman for Paul — Sergio Gor — didn’t directly address the camera licking and tried to shift the focus back to the campaign itself.
“Senator Rand Paul visited New Hampshire today to accept the endorsement of twenty New Hampshire State Representatives who support his run for the White House, and to visit with and take questions from the voters of NH.”
American Bridge, however, was more than happy to talk about the weird camera licking incident.
“Well, he’d been standing there, trying to block the camera. That’s not uncommon, though. Licking the camera… well, that’s new to us.”
According to People, Chesley holds the title of being the political director for New Hampshire for Rand. Eventually, David’s blocking turned into licking the camera. The licking didn’t appear to hurt the video footage of the American Bridge 21st Century group, and in fact brought more attention to Rand’s speech that it likely would’ve ever received if Chesley hadn’t licked the lens.
As reported by the Inquisitr, the 2016 presidential race is shaping up to be a heated one. Already, Hillary Clinton’s logo has been scrutinized, and the camera-licking affair has brought the race to a new low. The licking in Londonderry isn’t the first type of blocking ritual opposing trackers have seen, but it might be the weirdest.
After the licking footage went viral, all sorts of quips about tongue-lashing and such speech appeared online.
Autocorrect already recognizes the phrase #lickgate. That's one #smartphone @RandPaul @iPhone_News #nhpolitics #fitn pic.twitter.com/B8r2fnSxeT
— Jay Surdukowski (@Jay1043) May 11, 2015
[Image via YouTube]
