Sen. Rand Paul’s wife spoke out against the “incredibly hurtful” news reports “based on nothing more than speculation” after her husband suffered six broken ribs and a pleural effusion. Kelley Paul penned an article that CNN posted on Wednesday, in which she describes her husband being victimized a second time by news reports that appeared to blame the Senator for a neighbor’s physical attack on him.

From Kelley Paul for CNN:

Since November 3, my husband, Rand Paul, has not taken a single [breath] without pain. He has not had a single night’s sleep uninterrupted by long periods of difficult breathing or excruciating coughing.

As his wife, I have been distraught over seeing him suffer like this. There have been several nights where I had my hand on my phone ready to call 911 when his breathing became so labored it was terrifying.

…

It is incredibly hurtful that some news outlets have victimized Rand a second time as he struggles to recover, delighting in hateful headlines like “Not A Perfect Neighbor,” and concocting theories about an “ongoing dispute,” based on nothing more than speculation from an attention-seeking person with no knowledge of anything to do with us.

The fact is, neither Rand nor I have spoken to the attacker in 10 years (since before his wife and children moved away) other than a casual wave from the car.

…

This was not a “scuffle,” a “fight” or an “altercation,” as many in the media falsely describe it. It was a deliberate, blindside attack. The impact left Rand with six broken ribs, three displaced, pleural effusion and now pneumonia. This has been a terrible experience; made worse by the media’s gleeful attempts to blame Rand for it, ridiculing him for everything from mowing his own lawn to composting.

Read the rest of the article, here.