Politics & Government

WATCH: Black Protester Sucker-Punched At Trump Rally in North Carolina

A black protester was sucker-punched by a Donald Trump supporter while being escorted out of a campaign rally on Wednesday in North Carolina

A black protester was sucker-punched Wednesday by an older white man at a Donald Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Video of the incident showed the victim, 26-year-old Rakeem Jones, being punched by a white man in a cowboy hat, identified as John McGraw, 78. McGraw was charged with assault and disorderly conduct following the incident, according to The New York Times.

Following the removal of the protesters, Trump said, “Do we love our police? Our police are great.”

We haven't found any reports from the scene that said Trump in any way condemned the punch after it happened.

And it would hardly be the first incident of violence at a Trump rally that the Republican front-runner hasn't exactly condemned.

Trump urged a crowd in early February to "knock the crap out of" anyone who tried to throw tomatoes at him, saying that he would pay the legal fees of anyone who did so. Later that month when a protester interrupted one of his rallies, he said he missed the "old days" where someone interrupting him would be "carried out on a stretcher."

Cumberland County Sheriff Earl Butler shared a lengthy Facebook post in which he attempted to explain Jones' removal from the event.

"The victim of the assault was being escorted out of the Coliseum as a result of a disruption of the candidate’s speech," Butler said. Butler went on to speak out against the assault of Jones, saying:

No one should be subjected to such a cowardly, unprovoked act as that committed by McGraw. Regardless of political affiliation, speech, race, national origin, color, gender, bad reputation, prior acts, or political demonstration, no other citizen has the right to assault another person or to act in such a way as this defendant did. I hope that the courts will handle this matter with the appropriate severity for McGraw’s severe and gross violation of this victim’s rights.

Jones told the Washington Post that he and four friends attended the rally as a “social experiment.” Once Trump’s speech began, Jones said, both Trump supporters and protesters began shouting.

“No one in our group attempted to get physical,” Jones said.

Video of the punch was captured from another angle:

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