Sanders: Trump should take responsibility for violence at rallies

Bernie Sanders called on Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to address an incident at one of his rallies where a black man was punched in the face. 

{mosads}”No one in America should ever fear for their safety at a political rally,” Sanders, a Democratic candidate for the White House, said in a statement. “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.” 

BREAKING NEWS: Man charged with assaulting a protester at Donald Trump rally in North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/l5NnFColfq

— Breaking News Feed (@pzf) March 10, 2016

At a rally in North Carolina Wednesday night, a Trump supporter punched a man in the face as he was being escorted out of the venue. John McGraw, 78, was later arrested and charged with assault and battery.

A video from Inside Edition surfaced on Thursday of McGraw saying that he enjoyed “clocking the hell out of that big mouth.”

“Well, number one, we don’t know if he’s ISIS,” he said when asked why he punched the protester, 26-year-old Rakeem Jones. “We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American and cussing me … and sticking his face in my head. If he wants it laid out, I laid it out.”

“Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization,” McGraw said. 

On MSNBC Thursday, Jones said he was at the event as a spectator, not a protester. The Trump campaign has said it had no involvement with the incident. 

Trump’s events are frequently interrupted by protesters; at one event, Trump told the crowd to “knock the crap out of” protesters allegedly planning to throw tomatoes, adding “I’ll pay the legal fees.”