Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both spoke out Thursday against the assault of a protester Wednesday night at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina.
John McGraw, 78, was charged Thursday with battery and disorderly conduct after video allegedly caught him punching protester Rakeem Jones, 26, in the face as he was being escorted outside by a police officer. "Count me among those who are truly distraught and even appalled by a lot of what I see going on, what I hear being said," Clinton told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. "You know, you don't make America great by dumping on everything that made America great, like freedom of speech and assembly and the right of people to protest."
The incident was "deeply distressing," Clinton continued, and as Trump's campaign goes further, "more and more Americans are going to be really disturbed by the kind of campaign he's running." In a statement later Thursday, Sanders said that "no one in America should ever fear for their safety at a political rally. This ugly incident confirms that the politics of division has no place in our country. Mr. Trump should take responsibility for addressing his supporters' violent actions."
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McGraw was also talking, and told Inside Edition Jones "deserved it" and "next time we see him, we might have to kill him," Politico reports.
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