Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Friday refused to condemn the recent pattern of violence at his campaign rallies, while praising audience-members’ reactions to protesters as “very appropriate.”
“We’ve had some violent people as protesters,” the billionaire acknowledged during a press conference at his Mar-A-Lago estate. “These are people that punch. People that are violent people.”
He continued, categorizing a recent protester who flipped off the audience and struggled while being escorted out of the rally as a “really violent” heckler.
“That particular one who was swinging – very loud and then started swinging at the audience. You know what? The audience swung back,” Trump said. “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,” he added.
However, Trump also appeared to condemn the behavior of a supporter who sucker-punched a protester Wednesday night at the billionaire’s rally in Fayetteville, N.C.
“I’m not talking about just protesters. This was a guy who should not have been allowed to do what he did,” he said. “Frankly, if you want to know the truth, the police were very, very restrained.”
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton took to Twitter Thursday night to slam Trump over his response to episodes of violence at his rallies.
“Fomenting violence against demonstrators and members of the press in your events is unfortunate,” she tweeted, originally in Spanish.
