Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he wanted to punch a protester in the face during a Nevada rally Monday night and suggested the man should have been carried out on a stretcher.
Security officials were forced to escort a man out of a Las Vegas arena after the protester tried to interrupt Trump’s speech ahead of the GOP caucuses.
According to the Associated Press, about 6,000 supporters were at Trump’s event at Las Vegas’s South Point Arena when the protester was escorted from the venue.
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“Honestly, I hate to see that. Here’s a guy throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everything else when we’re talking,” Trump said to the crowd. “You know, the guards are very gentle with him and he’s walking out with big high-fives, smiling laughing.
“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya,” Trump said to cheers from his supporters.
Trump also suggested the protester should have been escorted out of the building on a stretcher.
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“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 in a stretcher, folks,” Trump said. “It’s true!”
In November, a Black Lives Matter activist Mercutio Southall Jr. was punched and forcefully removed from a Trump rally in Alabama. The presidential candidate also suggested the protester should have been roughed up.
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Southall began to chant “Black lives matter!” before the altercation took place. Several videos of the incident show Southall on the ground, and several men appear to be punching and kicking the protester.
The following day Trump called Southall’s actions “absolutely disgusting.”
“I will tell you that the man that was — was I don’t know, you say roughed up, he was so obnoxious and so loud, he was screaming,” Trump said. “I had 10,000 people in the room yesterday, 10,000 people, and this guy started screaming by himself … Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”
–with a file from The Associated Press.
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