We’ve all known Donald Trump is a monster for quite some time now. We’ve just been able to just sweep it under the rug and move on. But we can’t do that anymore. Not only is he a clear front-runner for the Republican nomination, he’s also come out in support of physical violence on several occasions. That’s not funny at all.
Most recently, in a speech aired on CNN, Trump came out in favor of “hitting back” at protesters. Here’s what he said:
“I thought it was very, very appropriate. He was swinging. He was hitting people. And the audience hit back. And that’s what we need a little bit more of. Now, I’m not talking about just a protester. This was a guy who should not have been allowed to do what he did. And frankly, if you want to know the truth, the police were very, very restrained.”
Even if we gloss over the horrible “eye for an eye” rhetoric, the protesters were never violent. A CBS reporter who’s been covering most of Trump’s rallies Tweeted:
I am at almost every Trump rally. I have yet to see a single protester start swinging as Trump just said.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 11, 2016
Oops. And if you watch some of these videos of protesters being heckled by the crowd or thrown out, you never see them acting violent. What you do see is Trump inciting the crowd, and the crowd sometimes shouting racial slurs and getting violent. In some cases the crowd attempts to throw these people out themselves without security or police intervention.
Yup, this is far from the first time this has happened too. On February 1, Trump referred to theoretical protesters who throw tomatoes saying:
“Knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell— I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise. It won’t be so much ’cause the courts agree with us too.”
And again on February 23, referring to a protester at a rally, he said:
“I’d like to punch him in the face.”
Rhetoric like this is extremely dangerous, and it’s actually scary to think of what might happen during a Donald Trump presidency. I can only imagine all of this hatred will only continue to grow, and America will devolve into the kind of Nazi fascist state we’re supposed to condemn. Do the world a favor. Vote Democrat.
Featured image by Gage Skidmore, available via a Creative Commons 2.0 license.
