A Donald Trump supporter apologized Wednesday to the protester he punched in March at a rally in North Carolina.
James Franklin McGraw was charged with assault after he sucker-punched Rakeem Jones as he was being escorted out of Trump’s campaign event.
During a court appearance Wednesday, the two shook hands and hugged, WRAL.com reported.
“You know what you did, and I know what I did. I’m not going to say you were wrong or I’m wrong,” McGraw told Jones in the courtroom.
“I hate it worse than anything in the world. If I met you in the street and the same thing occurred, I would have said, ‘Go on home. One of us will get hurt.’ That’s what I would have said. But we are caught up in a political mess today, and you and me, we got to heal our country.”
McGraw pleaded no contest to the assault and was given a suspended 30-day jail sentence and a year on unsupervised probation.
“I just felt good being able to shake his hand and being able to, you know, being able to actually face him,” Jones said.
