Video Appears To Show White Trump Supporter Sucker-Punch Black Protester (VIDEO)

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A white man in a cowboy hat appeared to sucker-punch a black protester being escorted out of Donald Trump’s North Carolina rally on Thursday, according to multiple videos of the incident.

The protester, identified by The Huffington Post as Rakeem Jones, can be seen in video footage waving his middle finger at the crowd as he’s escorted by men in uniform up the stairs of the Crown Center Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Then the man in the cowboy hat, who has not been identified, approaches the aisle and seems to punch Jones:

“Boom, he caught me. After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out,” Jones told the Washington Post afterward.

Jones told the Post he went to the rally with a “diverse” group of friends including a white woman, a Muslim and a gay man. He also said he thought the Cumberland County officers responsible for escorting him out of the rally failed to protect him.

“It’s happening at all these rallies now and they’re letting it ride,” he told the Post. “The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging.”

The uniformed officers took Jones to the ground after he appeared to be punched and handcuffed him. Here’s video of that from another angle:

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: