“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you”
by digby
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President Donald Trump may have incited violence at a campaign rally and can be sued for it, a federal judge has ruled.
According to the Associated Press, a lawsuit says three protesters were roughed up by Trump supporters at a March 1, 2016, event in Louisville, Kentucky. Two women and a man say they were punched and shoved because Trump encouraged his audience to use violence.
The incident was captured on video and showed Trump pointing at the protesters, repeating “get them out.”
Lawyers for Trump argued a free speech defense on behalf of the then-Republican presidential candidate. They argued that Trump didn’t intend for his supporters to use force.
This particular event didn’t feature the worst of it. In Nevada he said,
Oh, I love the old days, you know? You know what I hate? There’s a guy, totally disruptive, throwing punches, we’re not allowed to punch back anymore. 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 on a stretcher, folks.
You know, I love our police, and I really respect our police, and they’re not getting enough. They’re not. Honestly, I hate to see that. Here’s a guy, throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everything else when we’re talking, and he’s walking out, and we’re not allowed — you know, the guards are very gentle with him, he’s walking out, like, big high fives, smiling, laughing — I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.”
On NBC he said he might pay the legal fees for a North Carolina man who assaulted a protester:
The Republican presidential frontrunner has said he is looking into the possibility of paying legal fees for a man who punched a protester at one of his rallies last week. John McGraw, 78, was caught on video sucker-punching a protester who was being led out of an arena in Fayetteville, North Carolina. When questioned on NBC’s Meet the Press Trump said he has ‘instructed his people to look into’ footing McGraw’s legal bills.
Whether or not he will ultimately held liable is another story. Probably not. But he definitely egged on his crowds and it’s lucky that somebody didn’t get badly hurt.
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