Snopes: Did Trump Incite Violence At His Rallies?
Reprise: Must-See Video Mash-Up Of Trump's Violent Racism
"Part of the problem ... is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore."
Demonstrators interrupted a Trump rally in St. Louis, Missouri, Friday. As they were being escorted out of the venue, the candidate bemoaned the fact that there were no longer "consequences" to protesting and insisted the "country has to toughen up."
“You know, part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right?" he explained. His remarks are heard just after the seven-minute mark in the video above.
"The audience hit back. That's what we need a little bit more of."
At a press conference in Florida earlier on Friday, Trump was asked about his rhetoric in the wake of an incident in which a supporter at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, sucker-punched a black man in the face.
While he wasn't asked about that specific altercation,
Trump said of violent behavior in general at his events: "The audience hit back and that's what we need a little bit more of."
He also praised people using physical force at his rallies as "appropriate."
On NBC's
Meet the Press on Sunday,
Trump said he would have his team look into paying the legal fees of 78-year-old John McGraw, who was charged with assault and disorderly conduct after attacking the protester.
"In the good old days this doesn't happen because they used to treat them very, very rough."
As protesters were being escorted out of the rally in Fayetteville on Wednesday, Trump told the crowd that the protesters were not being treated poorly enough.
“They used to treat them very, very rough, and when they protested once, they would not do it again so easily,” he said, before lamenting "we've become weak."
"Try not to hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court, don't worry about it."
At a rally
in Michigan in early March, Trump again seemed to give the green light to violent behavior. As a protester was being escorted out of the building, Trump marveled at what a "fun time" everyone was having.
"Get him out," he then said. "Try not to hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court, don't worry about it."
He then told an anecdote about a brawl at a prior rally that was "amazing to watch."
"I'd like to punch him in the face."
At a
Las Vegas rally in late February, as a protester was again being removed from the premises, Trump
lamented that "we're not allowed to punch back anymore" and reminisced about the halcyon "old days," when a protester would "be carried out on a stretcher."
The crowd is delighted, cheering, clapping and laughing.
He then said he'd like to punch the man in the face, again to cheers.
"Knock the crap out of them."
After a protester
threw a tomato at Trump at a previous event, he encouraged fighting at a later campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in early February.
"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously." He again promised to pay for any legal fees associated with an assault.
"Maybe he should have been roughed up."
After a Black Lives Matter activist was kicked, punched and, he said, called the N-word at a
campaign event in Birmingham, Alabama, in November, Trump expressed his approval.
"Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing," the now frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination told Fox & Friends the next day.
Trump said the man deserved the treatment because he had been "very obnoxious" and "so loud." The remarks can be heard just after the 11-minute mark in the video above.
"I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will."
Black Lives Matter activists
took over a Bernie Sanders campaign event in Seattle in August, asking for a moment of silence for Michael Brown, the teenager who was killed by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Trump was asked how he would respond to a similar situation.
The candidate was defiant, and curious about who would get into a physical altercation when faced with protesters — him or his supporters.
That much, now, is clear.
This post has been updated with the addition of Trump's comments at Friday's St. Louis rally, Saturday's Kansas City rally and Sunday's interview on Meet the Press.
On Aug. 9, Trump made comments at a North Carolina rally suggesting "Second Amendment people" could take action against Hillary Clinton if she were elected. Trump later insisted he was referring to their voting power, not inciting violence. More here.
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