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| Black protester detained after being sucker-punched at Trump rally | Black protester detained after being sucker-punched at Trump rally |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A white Donald Trump supporter punched a black protester in the face at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday – after which uniformed sheriff’s deputies tackled and detained the man who was assaulted. | A white Donald Trump supporter punched a black protester in the face at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday – after which uniformed sheriff’s deputies tackled and detained the man who was assaulted. |
| A number of videos, taken from different angles by multiple people, show a young black man being led up the stairs out of Fayetteville’s Crown Coliseum by Cumberland County officers, waving his hands in the air as the audience boos. | A number of videos, taken from different angles by multiple people, show a young black man being led up the stairs out of Fayetteville’s Crown Coliseum by Cumberland County officers, waving his hands in the air as the audience boos. |
| As the man, identified by the Washington Post as Rakeem Jones, is marched up the stairs of the arena, a white man with a ponytail and a cowboy hat punches him in the face, seemingly without provocation. The crowd cheers as the protester stumbles away and is tackled by multiple Cumberland County sheriff officers, pushed to the floor, then handcuffed. | As the man, identified by the Washington Post as Rakeem Jones, is marched up the stairs of the arena, a white man with a ponytail and a cowboy hat punches him in the face, seemingly without provocation. The crowd cheers as the protester stumbles away and is tackled by multiple Cumberland County sheriff officers, pushed to the floor, then handcuffed. |
| A bystander is heard shouting at the police to “chill”. “You don’t gotta grab him like that,” the bystander says. | A bystander is heard shouting at the police to “chill”. “You don’t gotta grab him like that,” the bystander says. |
| “Boom, he caught me,” Jones told the Washington Post. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out. Now I’m waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.” | “Boom, he caught me,” Jones told the Washington Post. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out. Now I’m waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.” |
| He said that he and the group with him had gone to the rally as a “social experiment”. One of his friends shouted, he said, but “no one in our group attempted to get physical”. | He said that he and the group with him had gone to the rally as a “social experiment”. One of his friends shouted, he said, but “no one in our group attempted to get physical”. |
| He told the paper: “The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging. My eye still hurts. It’s just shocking. The shock of it all is starting to set in. It’s like this dude really hit me and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.” | He told the paper: “The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging. My eye still hurts. It’s just shocking. The shock of it all is starting to set in. It’s like this dude really hit me and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.” |
| Sgt Sean Swain, a spokesman with the Cumberland County sheriff’s office, did not return a request for comment from the Guardian. | Sgt Sean Swain, a spokesman with the Cumberland County sheriff’s office, did not return a request for comment from the Guardian. |
| The incident is far from the first time that the candidate’s rallies have been the site of physical violence – the billionaire himself has been vocal in supporting harsh crackdowns on protesters at his rallies in the past, whether by his own security or by assembled Trump supporters. | The incident is far from the first time that the candidate’s rallies have been the site of physical violence – the billionaire himself has been vocal in supporting harsh crackdowns on protesters at his rallies in the past, whether by his own security or by assembled Trump supporters. |
| During an interruption at one of his rallies in Kentucky last week, Trump told the audience to “get him out. Try not to hurt him – if you do, I’ll defend you in court.” After a November rally in Birmingham, Alabama, in which white attendees assaulted a black protester who disrupted his speech, Trump declared: “Maybe he should have been roughed up.” Of a protester at a February rally in Las Vegas, Trump told the crowd from the lectern: “I’d like to punch him in the face.” | During an interruption at one of his rallies in Kentucky last week, Trump told the audience to “get him out. Try not to hurt him – if you do, I’ll defend you in court.” After a November rally in Birmingham, Alabama, in which white attendees assaulted a black protester who disrupted his speech, Trump declared: “Maybe he should have been roughed up.” Of a protester at a February rally in Las Vegas, Trump told the crowd from the lectern: “I’d like to punch him in the face.” |
| Today, Trump’s campaign issued a statement denying that Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had a physical altercation with a female reporter at a news conference on Tuesday. | |
| The reporter, Michelle Fields of Breitbart News, wrote a post for the conservative site alleging that Lewandowski had yanked her away from the candidate, leaving her with bruises on her arm. | |
| “The accusation, which has only been made in the media and never addressed directly with the campaign, is entirely false,” Trump campaign communications director Hope Hicks told the Guardian, before implying that Fields was merely seeking attention. | |
| Fields responded to the campaign’s statement with a photograph of her bruised arm. | |
| I guess these just magically appeared on me @CLewandowski_ @realDonaldTrump. So weird. pic.twitter.com/oD8c4D7tw3 |