But at a rally with Sarah Palin last month in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump encouraged a few thousand supporters to beat up anyone who hurled a tomato at him, saying security had warned him that might happen.
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?” Trump said, drawing cheers and laughter. “Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise. They won’t be so much, because the courts agree with us too — what’s going on in this country.”
On Sunday, he defended the remarks in the NBC interview.
“If you get hit in the face with a tomato, let me tell you, with somebody with a strong arm, at least, let me tell you, it can be very damaging,” he said.
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At a casino rally in Las Vegas last month, Trump pined for “the old days” when demonstrators would be “carried out on a stretcher, folks.”
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“I’d like to punch him in the face,” he told the Las Vegas crowd when one protester was ejected.
