Donald Trump: ‘These people are disrupters’

Donald Trump made these remarks Sunday about violence at his rallies in response to questions by John Dickerson on CBS’ Face the Nation:

“First of all, with all of the rallies I have had ... you haven’t seen one person even injured at one of our rallies. And the cases you’re talking about, the one (protester) was a bad dude, he was swinging, he was hitting people, he was a very bad guy, and the police came in and they really were very effective. And frankly, some of the audience members had no choice but to be effective, and I didn’t mind that at all. Or they would have been hurt, frankly. ...

I don’t condone violence, and I don’t condone what (my supporter in North Carolina who punched a protester) did because he got carried away, and it’s very unfortunate. But this kid was walking out, and I understand he had a certain finger up in the air as he’s walking out, and this man became very angry. And you know what, again, I don’t condone violence, but the kid shouldn’t have had the finger up in the air either, OK, if that’s what he did. So I’m going to take a look at the tape, and I’ll let you know (whether I’d consider paying the supporter’s legal fees). These people are disrupters. They’re not protesters. They’re disrupters. They’re professional disrupters in some cases. But that’s all they do. They stand up and they disrupt. ... But if they ever went to (Bernie Sanders’) rallies and did the same thing, I want to tell you, you would be so angry with me. Nobody talks about it, but you would be so against me. It’s a whole different standard when it comes to a Republican conservative vs. a liberal.

If people went to their rallies and disrupted their rallies, like my rallies are disrupted, the press would stick up for them and would make all sorts of excuses about how terrible it is. So we have two standards in this country. ...

I see people in the audience that I don’t think they have a great future. I think they’re disrupters. I think they are not in love with our country. I think they protest and they disrupt. That’s what they do. I don’t know if they do it for a living. I don’t know if they get paid for doing it. But they are not good people, and they are certainly not good for our country. ...

I’m constantly saying to the police, don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them. I don’t condone violence, but some of these people are violent.”