Donald Trump Calls Arizona Protesters ‘Sick’ As He Defends Campaign Manager For Allegedly Assaulting Protester
Donald Trump is not happy about protesters blocking his rallies. The Daily Mail reports that the current GOP front-runner for the presidential nomination called anti-Trump protesters “sick” in interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week.
Trump claimed that the media is biased against his supporters because they constantly show their bad behavior and don’t show the protesters doing wrong.
“I think it’s very unfair that these, really, in many cases, professional and in many cases sick protesters can put cars in the road blocking thousands of great Americans from coming to a speech and nobody says something about that,” Trump said.
Trump was talking about what protesters in Arizona did to prevent Trump rally attendees from getting to the campaign event at Fountain Hills, Arizona.
During the interview, Trump also defended his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was allegedly captured on video assaulting a protester in Tucson.
Video shows @realDonaldTrump campaign manager involved in protest scuffle at rally https://t.co/384FDzk3IE pic.twitter.com/AUjDEOOhfQ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 20, 2016
“I give him credit for having spirit,” Trump said of Lewandowski.
As the Daily Beast reports, this isn’t the first time Corey Lewandowski has been accused of manhandling people at a Trump rally.
Lewandowski has been previously accused of grabbing a Breitbart journalist’s arm at a rally as she tried to ask Donald Trump a question after his speech.
Michelle Field, the journalist in question, claimed that she suffered bruises as a result of the grab.
The Trump campaign denied that any physical contact happened. Breitbart, a conservative news site, issued a statement that didn’t entirely support their reporter.
“It’s obviously unacceptable that someone crossed a line and made physical contact with our reporter,” said the statement from Larry Solov, Breitbart’s CEO and president. “What Michelle has told us directly is that someone ‘grabbed her arm’ and while she did not see who it was, Ben Terris of the Washington Post told her that it was Corey Lewandowski. If that’s the case, Corey owes Michelle an immediate apology.”
However, according to the Daily Beast, video soon surfaced which showed Field’s arm being grabbed by Lewandowski.
Michelle Field made a complaint with police against Lewandowski. Authorities in Jupiter, Florida, where the incident happened, issued a statement claiming that they are “investigating an alleged battery that occurred at 115 Eagle Tree Terrace (Trump National) on March 8, 2016.”
According to the Daily Mail, at the recent Tucson rally white man wearing an American flag shirt was kicked and punched by a black Trump supporter, 32-year-old Tony Pettway. Pettway was later arrested.
The white protester was being escorted out of the rally with another man who was wearing a KKK-style white hood. There are reports that he performed a Nazi salute before he was forced to leave.
“These people are disruptive,” Trump said in his interview with George Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos mentioned that the protester who was beaten was not wearing a KKK hood, but a shirt with an American flag printed on it.
Trump side-stepped that and talked about the fact that the supporter who beat the protester was African American. Trump surmised that his supporter “was very, very incensed” at seeing the KKK symbolism.
“A protester was wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit to a rally and he went wild and frankly, and frankly, it was a tough thing to watch,” Trump continued. “But why would a protester walk into a room with a Ku Klux Klan outfit on?”
Trump protester punched, kicked while being removed from rally in Tucson, Arizona https://t.co/6h2C2xVC4b pic.twitter.com/EyuA6JqWGm
— ABC News (@ABC) March 20, 2016
Trump told Stephanopoulos that “We don’t condone violence and I say it and we have very little violence, very very little violence at the rallies.”
Trump circled back to disparaging the protesters.
“They blocked a road,” he said. “I think maybe those people should suffer some blame also. Let me just say it’s a very unfair double standard,” he continued.
“Why don’t you mention the fact that people were delayed by an hour trying to get into an arena and the only road going there and they were delayed for an hour was people were blocking the road?” Trump said.
[Photo by Andrew H. Walker/ Getty Images]
