CNN Trump supporter: ‘Riots aren’t necessarily a bad thing’

Trump warned Wednesday that there would be hell to pay if the Republican Party tries to have a brokered convention later this summer in Cleveland, and deny him the nomination.

“I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots,” the GOP front-runner said in an interview with CNN. “I’m representing a tremendous — many, many millions of people, in many cases first-time voters.”

“[I]f you disenfranchise those people … I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen,” he added.

CNN contributor Scottie Nell Hughes, who has been one of the real estate mogul’s most eager and tireless media boosters, seemed at ease Wednesday with Trump’s thinly veiled warning.

“You have to understand the motivation of the right here. It’s not because people aren’t getting their voices heard, it’s because the people’s voice would be ignored in this case. The majority, the plurality, the majority of the population have voted for Mr. Trump. The obvious moves that will be made by the establishment Republican Party to keep him from this nomination, that right there would cause anger and that would be an obvious backhand to all of the people who have been paying attention and have been engaged in this political process,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“So, you know, riots aren’t necessarily a bad thing if it means it’s because they’re fighting the fact that our establishment Republican Party has gone corrupt and decided to ignore the voice of the people and ignore the process,” she added.

Blitzer pushed her for clarification, and asked if she was indeed condoning violence if Trump doesn’t win the nomination.

“It’s not riot as in a negative thing, what we’ve seen in the past,” she said. “I don’t think they would sit there and resort, in fact, I know they would not resort to violence. I know they would not do it. However, they would make sure their voices are heard, that they can’t be ignored,” she said.

“[I]f something happens to ignore their voice as they are representatives of the people, then I think right now there will need to be some way of getting the establishment’s attention. I, however, don’t think that will happen. I don’t consider riots to be a violent thing unless they turn into — I consider it to be something where you’ll have the majority of the people will be engaged and will be paying attention to what is going on, and it will be an obvious kidnapping of the voice of the people and ignoring of what the people want over what the minority of the establishment wants,” she added.

After a brief commercial break, a somewhat bewildered Blitzer again asked Hughes to explain her position on riots, which gave her a chance to walk back her initial remarks.

She explained she didn’t mean an actual riot when she used the word “riot.”

“I’ll be the first to apologize,” she said, thanking Blitzer for giving her a chance to clarify her remarks.

“There are two definitions of riot. On one side, it is, yes, it does mean something to disturb the peace in a violent way. But the other definition, technical definition is, ‘an impressively large or varied display of something.’ I think that’s what you’re going to have: A large display of emotion. People that are there that were elected to represent Mr. Trump is not allowed to do the job they were elected to do and vote for Mr. Trump, who has gotten the majority of the population, the majority of the delegates.”

“In no way would Mr. Trump, nor myself, ever want to see probably — would ever want to see anything violent or any harm come to anybody,” she added.

Trump has been criticized for encouraging rally-goers to confront protesters at his campaign events. He even promised to pay the legal fees for whoever took a swing at a disruptor. Since making this and similar comments, Trump rallies have grown increasingly violent, and he was prompted last weekend to cancel an event in Chicago over security concerns.

This isn’t the first time that Hughes has remarked on riots, as she has been very critical in the past of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md.

In December, Hughes referred to the people behind Black Lives Matter demonstrations in New York City and Los Angeles as “race-baiters” and “instigators,” and accused protesters of “destroying people’s Christmas spirit.”

Hughes did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.