Peoria Standard

A University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor is being accused of advocating for violence against Sen. Rand Paul stemming from their difference of opinion over COVID-19 restrictions.

“Where have you gone Rand Paul’s neighbor, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you,” Mike Wagner posted to Twitter in response to a video of Paul pushing against stricter COVID restrictions and arguing “it’s time for us to resist. They can’t arrest all of us… No one should follow the CDC.”

Paul suffered broken ribs in 2017 after being attacked by neighbor Rene Boucher. He recently shared he has “lifelong symptoms” from the attack and Boucher is facing jail time.

Wagner later claimed he didn’t mean the post to be taken that way and has since deleted it from his page.

“I didn’t mean it that way, but I should know better than to say anything that could be misconstrued in a violent direction,” he later posted.

Through it all, the university has continued to support Wagner, with spokeswoman Meredith Mcglone telling reporters, “Students, faculty and staff are able to exercise their First Amendment right to free expression on social media; when they do, they are expressing their own views, not those of the university.”

Wagner teaches 200 to 800 level courses at the university, including on reporting, political communication, media and behavior, physiology and communication, fact-checking and public opinion writing.