Escalating a disturbing pattern of ugly confrontations with protesters, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump told his audience he’d like to go back to “the old days” and punch a man who interrupted his campaign rally in Las Vegas Monday night.
“You know what I hate? There’s a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches, we’re not allowed to punch back anymore,” Trump said as security escorted the protester out. “I love the old 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.”
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Trump, speaking from the podium, said the man had been throwing punches and lamented how “gentle” security was in removing him.
“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you that,” he said.
Security personnel with South Point Hotel and Casino, where Trump was speaking, told Politico the man was not throwing punches and that Trump “was just over-exaggerating.”
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The man was one of several protesters who disrupted the rally, including a man carrying a sign that read, “Veterans to Trump: End Hate Speech Against Muslims.” Trump has called for banning all Muslims from entering the U.S., a proposal he unveiled in the wake of the Islamic State group-inspired mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in December.
Trump told security to “get him the hell out” and the crowd booed as he was removed from the event.
Monday’s is the latest in a series of incidents in which Trump’s events have been disrupted by people protesting his stances on a variety of issues — and the candidate has answered with bellicose, threatening language, firing up his supporters.
At first, Trump was patient with the disruptions, telling guards to “get them out, but don’t hurt them” as he was repeatedly interrupted during a Miami speech in October.
But as the campaign continued, and his popularity grew, Trump was less magnanimous.
“See, the first group, I was nice. Oh, take your time,” he said then. “The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I’ll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I’ll say get the hell out of here!”
In November, a Black Lives Matter activist was manhandled by Trump supporters after interrupting a Trump rally in a Birmingham, Alabama. Video appeared to show white rally attendees kicking and punching Mercutio Southall Jr., an African American, after he fell to the ground.
“Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,” Trump said on Fox News the next day. “I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a trouble-maker who was looking to make trouble.”
In December, security removed almost a dozen protesters from a Trump rally in Las Vegas as supporters yelled at them, including one that shouted, “light that [expletive] on fire,” according to video captured of the incident.
And at an Iowa rally in January, Trump mocked a man wearing a turban and sporting a beard who appeared to be a Sikh. The man had unveiled a white sheet reading “STOP HATE” as Trump railed against “radical Islamic terror.”
“He wasn’t wearing one of those hats, was he?” Trump asked, referring to a turban, as the crowd chanted: “U.S.A. U.S.A.
The front-runner’s candidacy has defied conventional wisdom, which would have see comments ruining chances of success. But as Trump has acknowledged, he has been able to get away with saying or doing almost anything without damaging his support.
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” he said.
In December, Talking Points Memo catalogued Trumps’ confrontations with protesters, describing them as tantamount to hate speech. “Racist and bigoted language has become more commonplace at the rallies, both from Trump supporters and the candidate himself,” according to the report.
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Nostalgic for ‘Old Days,’ Trump Wants to Punch Protester ‘in the Face’ originally appeared on usnews.com
