Trump stands by rhetoric at rallies
GOP front-runner stokes tension in crowds, critics say
Heckling at rallies is a staple of presidential campaigns, and the New York billionaire attracts more than average. For both Democrats and Republicans, it's routine to urge unruly crowds to remain peaceful, as Trump often does. But Trump has openly endorsed violent retaliation against people who disrupt his rallies, many of whom accuse him of racism.
The racially charged mayhem that erupted at his planned rally in Chicago on Friday night, with black and Latino protesters and white Trump supporters taking swings at one another on live television, did nothing to temper what critics in both parties have labeled his dangerous rhetoric.
At a rally Sunday in Bloomington, Ill., Trump lashed out at the media, accusing journalists of giving outsize coverage to the violent aspects of his campaign. “Guess what happened?” Trump said as he criticized an allegedly violent heckler. “Our people started swinging back.”
Trump repeatedly returned to that theme, talking about violence or threats of it at his events as both overhyped and justified. “Sometimes we talk a little bit tough,” he said. “When I see somebody out swinging his fists, I say, ‘Get 'em the hell out of here.' We're a little rough.”
“They hate to hear that,” he said, referring to the media. “?‘Why did you act so viciously toward that young person that was really protesting?' See he wasn't protesting. He was swinging. He was vicious. And you know what? They took him out. That was OK that day.”
Trump did not specify which incident he was referring to, but he appeared to be talking about an assault in the audience during his rally Wednesday in Fayetteville, N.C. Police were ejecting a black protester, who multiple videos show to have been loud but nonviolent, when a white man, John McGraw, 78, of Linden, N.C., allegedly hit the man in the face.
McGraw, who was arrested on assault and disorderly conduct charges, told “Inside Edition” on his way out of the rally: “Next time we see him, we might have to kill him.”
On NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Trump was asked whether he would pay McGraw's legal fees, as he once offered to do for supporters who rough up protesters.
“I've actually instructed my people to look into it, yes,” Trump responded.
In several television interviews Sunday, Trump denied condoning violence.
But at an Iowa rally with Sarah Palin last month, Trump encouraged a few thousand supporters to beat up anyone who hurled a tomato at him, saying security had warned him that might happen. In the NBC interview on Sunday, he defended the remarks.
“If you get hit in the face with a tomato, let me tell you, with somebody with a strong arm, at least, let me tell you, it can be very damaging,” he said.
Trump encourages crowds to surround and shout down protesters with chants of “USA.” At a casino rally in Las Vegas last month, he pined for “the old days” when demonstrators would be “carried out on a stretcher, folks.”
While he sometimes urges crowds to be gentle with those getting kicked out of his rallies, he often does not. “I'd like to punch him in the face,” he told the Las Vegas crowd when one protester was ejected.
On Sunday, Trump blamed Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for riling up protesters. At the rally in central Illinois, he threatened to send his own supporters to disrupt the Vermont senator's rallies in retaliation.
Sanders denied directing supporters to disrupt Trump rallies, and no evidence has suggested otherwise.
“A candidate for president of the United States should condemn violence, not encourage violence,” Sanders told supporters at a rally Sunday at in Columbus, Ohio. People have a right to protest, Sanders said during a televised town hall on CNN, but “that is very different from getting involved in violence.”
Later Sunday, at a rally in West Chester, Ohio, Trump expressed mild disappointment that only one protester showed up at a rally.
“In some ways,” he said, “it makes it more exciting.”
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