Creatures can't attack you... except if they're put in tapped and attacking??

My friends and I were playing a 4 player game of commander the other day, and a weird situation arose. I had a Rite of the Raging Storm on the field, and my buddy got his free 5/1 Lightning Rager token on his upkeep.

Rite of the Raging Storm states, "Creatures named Lightning Rager can't attack you or planeswalkers you control."

His commander was Delina, Wild Mage. Skip to combat - he swung his Lighting Rager token at someone else, then with his commander's shenanigans, created 3 copies of that token coming at me, tapped and attacking. He said that because the copies came in already attacking and weren't declared attackers, they got around the "can't attack" rule.

But... they were still creatures named Lighting Rager and they were attacking me?? Is this legit, or BS? Because it doesn't smell right.