“Next time, we might have to kill him”, 78-year-old John McGraw, arrested – not when he allegedly assaulted the protestor, but on Thursday – only after the victim’s video went viral. We don’t know who he is.
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Footage shows Mr Jones being restrained by officers as an onlooker says: “Chill, chill!”
Multiple videos of the assault show McGraw abruptly punching the young black man in the face as he was walking up a stairway with other protesters being escorted out by police, amid cries of “USA!”
Trump rallies increasingly have been the site of confrontations between protesters and supporters, though this incident appears to be the first time a rally attendee was charged with assaulting a protester.
“Big mouth” – Don’t fool yourself if you think McGraw was only vilifying Jones for being loud and outspoken, which would be racist enough as it is.
In an email in response to a question about the assault, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said only that “we are not involved”.
“The whole arena cheered as I was being escorted out and even more so after I got hit”, he said. “It’s happening at all these rallies now and they’re letting it ride”, Jones said.
The alleged assault Wednesday night against the protester occurred seemingly out of the blue as a group of protesters were being escorted out of the building.
Social media posts identified the man who was punched by his Instagram and Twitter handles; messages to him were not immediately returned, nor were messages to those who shot the videos. As Jones walked up the stairs, a man with a ponytail and wearing a hat is clearly seen from several camera angles punching Jones in the face.
McGraw was due in court in April, Swain said. Another protester who was with Jones also filmed the incident from his perspective.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton called the incident “deeply distressing”. “This is the America, when people tell you, ‘Oh, racism doesn’t exist.’ It’s here”.
Crowd control expert Paul Wertheimer, who has been keeping track of Trump events, said he hasn’t seen any instances where law enforcement or private security have overstepped.
“No one in America should ever fear for their safety at a political rally”, Sanders said.
Trump has drawn heat for how he has addressed violence against protesters, saying last fall that the Black Lives Matter protester maybe “should have been roughed up”. Trump said some people in the audience “took him out”.
Trump is often interrupted by protesters at his rally, and frequently responds with “get them out”.
“Knock the crap out of them, would you?”
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Later in the same event, another black protester, a woman, was being led out when Trump lamented “the good old days” when someone would have been carried out “on a stretcher”. “I promise, I promise”.
