Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump defended his supporters’ right to “hit back” at campaign event protesters in a Friday press conference where he received Ben Carson’s endorsement.
Trump’s remarks came the day after John McGraw, 78, was criminally charged for allegedly sucker-punching a black protester at a Trump rally in North Carolina Wednesday evening.
Asked if he’s “playing a character” when he says things like “I want to punch a protester in the face,” Trump responded there have been “some violent people” protesting his rallies.
“These are people that punch. People that are violent people,” Trump said. “The particular one where I said ‘I’d like to bang him,’ that was a very vicious – a guy who was swinging, very loud, and then started swinging at the audience.”
He continued: “You know what? The audience swung back. And I thought it was very, very appropriate. He was swinging. He was hitting people. And the audience hit back. And that’s what we need a little bit more of.”
The real estate mogul went on to say the police were “very, very restrained” in dealing with the incident.
Trump seemed to be referencing an incident at a rally in Las Vegas late last month, when he remarked “I’d like to punch him in the face, I tell ya” as a protester was being removed.
“You know what I hate? There’s a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches, we’re not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the ol’ days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks,” he told the crowd.
The Republican also called the protester “nasty as hell,” but CNN reported the man did not appear to be fighting the security officers escorting him out of the venue.
Trump supporters, getting ready for a rally:
Clever move by The Donald.
He has made a calculation that he is either going to be the Absolute Dictator of the United States (with help from the Brown-Shirt-ready GOP Base)
Someone who, instead of simply being a rich man with a sleazy reputation, will go down in History as the worst presidential candidate in U.S, political history (topping George Wallace, who did NOT represent a Major Political Party), with social ramifications far greater than Wallace.
The old Nazi idea of Rule or Ruin (Gotterdammerung)
I posted, more than once, that the derp would grow exponentially. I see both the Absolute Donald. and the out of his depth rich guy. He thinks he’s the smartest most cleverest genius who ever lived in the history of the Universe. He isn’t and would be an utter disaster if elected.
At what point does Trump’s urging for his supporters to punch people in the face and otherwise physically attack protesters become an incitement to riot?
When Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell and the rest of the “Both Parties Are To Blame” Brigade say it is.
Not a minute before