The wife of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Kelley Paul, wrote an article for CNN describing her husband’s pain since the attack by his neighbor Rene Boucher left the Senator with 6 broken ribs, pleural effusion, and more. While Kelley is clearly heartbroken over her husband’s condition, she’s also angry at the media for suggesting Paul somehow had it coming.

Kelley describes how much her husband has suffered since the attack occurred, with labored breathing, and torturous coughing fits.

“As his wife, I have been distraught over seeing him suffer like this,” writes Kelley. “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.”

Despite his pain, Kelley writes on her admiration for Rand’s willingness to still get up and do his job, even in the midst of pain, and now sickness.

“As we walked through the airport returning from D.C., he was shivering with a 102.5 fever, and the next morning his internist diagnosed pneumonia in his damaged lung,” wrote Kelley.

Kelley’s heartbreak over her husband’s condition is accompanied as well by anger over the media’s suggestion that somehow Rand deserved to be attacked. The media’s portrayal of Rand not being a very neighborly individual, and that Boucher’s actions were the result of a straw that broke the camels back, is just ridiculous to her.

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. Nobody in our family has, nor have we communicated with anyone in his family. With Rand’s travel to D.C. in the last seven years, he has rarely seen this man at all. The only “dispute” existed solely in the attacker’s troubled mind, until, on a beautiful autumn day, he ran down the hill on our property and slammed his body into Rand’s lower back as he stood facing away, wearing noise canceling headphones to protect his ears from the lawnmower. 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.

Kelley’s account of the attack on her husband adds fuel to the building fire that Boucher’s attack was motivated by something other than lawn trimmings. Rand himself also hinted that this was not the case.

Accounts from the Pauls’ neighbors describe the family as kind and welcoming, putting much of the media’s speculation that Rand brought this on himself in doubt, and opening up some questions about the media itself.

It’s clear that Paul is not the left’s favorite politician, especially in the media. This was exhibited on Monday when MSNBC host Kasie Hunt said that Paul’s attack is one of her “favorite stories.”

Regardless of your political stances, a physical attack that leaves someone injured is beyond the pale, and my heart goes out to the Pauls.