Trump Protester Sucker-punched at Rally in North Carolina: Update
Update:
‘We might have to kill him,’ says man who punched Trump protester
Josh Hafner, USA TODAY 6:38 p.m. EST March 10, 2016
The man who punched a protester at a Donald Trump event Wednesday suggested the protester may have to be killed if seen again.
John McGraw, 78, was charged Thursday with assault and disorderly conduct after sucker-punching a man who was being led out of the Fayetteville, N.C., event by security.
After the event ended but before he was charged, McGraw told Inside Edition that he liked “knocking the hell out of that big mouth.”
“The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” McGraw said. “We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization”
McGraw told Inside Edition that the protester, Rakeem Jones, deserved to be hit.
“We don’t know who he is, but we know that he’s not acting like an American,” McGraw said.
Video from Wednesday’s event show Jones, a black man, being led out as McGraw walks over and quickly strikes Jones in the face.
At least one officer in the video watches Jones get hit before authorities went on to detain Jones on the ground, apparently letting McGraw walk away.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office later announced it was investigating why Jones was detained but not his assailant, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The story shared here about events yesterday has just begun getting covered nationally this afternoon. It is a developing story, as the assailant has just been arrested and charged.
But that still leaves a couple of questions:
Why wasn’t this the biggest story of the campaign this morning, even with the other events of last night? It’s not like this regularly happens during every major party campaign every presidential year. Maybe the media thinks it is the new normal.
Why, at this point almost a day later, does this story have only about 130 articles showing on Google News? That’s about the same number of articles right now about Lindsay Lohan’s current dating habits. Again, is the hateful and bizarre now the new normal in major party politics? Or are some in the media actually scared, not of Donald Trump, but of prematurely killing the orange goose, with so many months of golden eggs still to be laid?
Trump protester sucker-punched at rally in North Carolina
Josh Hafner, USA TODAY 12:02 p.m. EST March 10, 2016
A protester was being led out of a Donald Trump event Wednesday night when a man attending the rally sucker-punched the protester in the face, videos show.
The incident, captured from multiple angles, involved security leading the protester, a black man, out of Trump’s Fayetville, N.C. event when an apparently white man sporting a ponytail walks over and quickly punches the protester in the face as at least one member of security watched, recordings show.
The Washington Post interviewed the protester, Rakeem Jones, who said the punch blindsided him.
“After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out,” Jones said, adding, “I was basically in police custody and got hit.”
Shortly after the punch, men in uniforms that read “Sherrif’s Office” detained Rakeem on the ground. It’s not clear whether the man who assaulted him was detained.
Jones attend the rally with friends including a Muslim, a gay man and a white woman, he told The Post. He said “no one in our group attempted to get physical,” but said the woman with him began shouting after Trump’s speech began.
Other event attendees shouted back.
Ronnie Rouse, who was at the event with Jones, told The Post the audience members shouted “Go home n—–s” and “You need to get the f— out of there!”
Both the Sheriff’s Office of Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is located, and the city’s police denied detaining Jones, who was not arrested.
The altercation marks the latest violent incident between Trump supporters and protesters at the candidate’s events.
Earlier this month, video captured several white men shoving and yelling at a young black woman who protested a Trump event in Kentucky.
One of the men involved was identified as a white nationalist named Matthew Heimbach. Another, a young recruit slated to join the Marines, was later discharged by the Marine Corps for taking part in what it called a “racially charged” event.
Shaun King, an activist who helped identify the young Marine recruit, is now seeking to identify the ponytailed man who punched Jones.
Bob Schwartz 