If you watched Ron Paul’s primary-night speech in New Hampshire this Tuesday, the enormous, bearded, lumberjack-looking fellow towering over the diminutive 76-year-old Texas congressman was hard to miss. The next day, a Buzzfeed headline proclaimed “Ron Paul Has a Freaking Giant,” and an Internet star was born. We tracked down the giant, 42-year-old New Hampshire resident Chris Lawless, to ask him about, you know, being a giant.
What’s your association with the Ron Paul campaign? Are you on staff, a volunteer…
I’m a volunteer. I was involved in the 2008 campaign as a volunteer, and I’ve been volunteering ever since, you know, in the movement so to speak. So I’m just a volunteer here in New Hampshire.
What kind of stuff were you doing for the campaign?
I did phone calls, I did emceeing at a bunch of events. I did some driving with Senator Rand Paul there. As you know, I’m kind of large, so I’ve also been — I don’t want to say security, but I was like the buffer. So sometimes I would watch a door, make sure no one would go through a door, stuff like that.
Has the Paul campaign put your unique giant skills to use in any other ways?
That would probably be the way they use me, as a buffer between the press and the crowds, that type of stuff.
Have they had you, like, reach for high things, hang stuff?
Actually, there was something on the shelf the other day and they did say, “Go get Chris.”
How did you end up standing behind Ron Paul during his New Hampshire speech? Did they purposely put you there because you’re a giant, or …?
No! After I announced — I introduced [state senator] Jim Forsythe — I was planning to exit the stage, and they said, “No, no, stay onstage.” And that was really the only spot.
As far as you know, are you the tallest person that worked on the Paul campaign?
As far as I know. I haven’t met anybody taller, but as far as I know, I am.
Okay, so. How tall are you exactly?
I’ll give a surprising answer: six-foot-five.
Six-five? I mean, that’s pretty tall …
Yeah. That’s not a giant.
For some reason you looked more gigantic in those photos. Were you standing next to a midget?
That guy was pretty short who was standing in front of me. He’s not a midget, but he’s pretty short. That’s why this whole thing is very funny to me. I was going to make up some crazy story that I was found in an orphanage and all that, I’m nine feet tall, but no. I’m just six-foot-five, the guy in front of me was short, and it just happened to be.
Last question: Has Dr. Paul ever asked you to personally destroy the Fed with your bare hands?
No, but he should, because I’d happily volunteer for that.
