GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday distanced himself from two men who invoked the New York businessman during their beating of a homeless man in Boston.
“It would be a shame,” Trump said upon hearing of the alleged assault, according to The Boston Globe.
“I will say that the people following me are passionate,” he added. “They love this country and want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”
{mosads}The Globe said that brothers Scott and Steve Leader allegedly ambushed an unidentified homeless man while he was sleeping outside South Boston’s Dorchester MBTA stop, supposedly targeting him because he was Hispanic.
“Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” Scott Leader reportedly told police after the incident.
The Leader brothers are accused of urinating on the man upon encountering him after a Boston Red Sox baseball game. They then allegedly ripped apart the man’s sleeping bag before physically attacking him.
“Next thing … he was getting hit in the face and the head,” according to the State Police report. “He remembers being punched several times and hit with the metal pole.”
The man was taken to Boston Medical Center and treated for a broken nose and bruising to his arms and chest.
Multiple witnesses said they saw the Leaders’ attack, The Globe said, and watched the brothers, who have extensive criminal records, walk away from the reported victim laughing.
Both men pleaded not guilty in Dorchester District Court on Wednesday afternoon to multiple assault charges with a dangerous weapon, indecent exposure and making threats.
Trump, meanwhile, has turned outrage into polling advantages since his remarks on illegal immigration while launching his 2016 Oval Office bid in June.
He has particularly criticized Mexico for its role in America’s border problems, sparking backlash in the Mexican community.
“They’re sending people who have a lot of problems,” Trump said from New York City’s Trump Tower on June 16.
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he added. “And some, I assume, are good people.”