Trump: Protesters ‘Are Not Innocent Lambs’
STEPHANOPOULOS: "A lot to talk about this morning with Donald Trump. He joins us now by phone. Thank you for joining us this morning, Mr. Trump. You know, so we saw these incidents in Tucson last night. What more will you be doing to stop your supporters from acting out like this?"
TRUMP: "Well, it’s not only Tucson. I mean we had a great rally right next to Phoenix and it was an amazing, 21,000 people. But the protesters blocked the road. So you had thousands of people that couldn’t get in. Sheriff Joe, who did a fantastic job, immediately arrested three people and the rally totally broke up. It totally broke up. The — the people that were protesting, and they left. And they went and there was no more of a problem. And everybody went in. We had 21,000. There wasn’t one word during this massive rally."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "But what about this violence --"
TRUMP: "And it was beautiful. Then --"
STEPHANOPOULOS: "— Mr. Trump?"
TRUMP: "— then — well, then a little bit later on, we went, uh, to other areas. I mean we — we went all over — frankly, we went all over Arizona, uh, and we went to Tucson and we had so many people that wouldn’t allow people for the rally into the door. They were making it almost impossible to get in. We had 6,000 or 7,000 people, at least. We had 2,000 people outside. They wouldn’t allow them in. These people are very disruptive. People, George."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "But does that excuse --"
TRUMP: "These are not innocent lambs."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "— punching and kicking a protester?"
TRUMP: "Well, you know, he was wearing — he or his partner was wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit. This happened to be an African-American man who was very — a person at the rally, who was very, very incensed at the fact that somebody, a protester, would be wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit. And he went --"
STEPHANOPOULOS: "You appear to be --"
TRUMP: "-- pretty wild --"
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Using that --"
TRUMP: "-- and frankly --"
STEPHANOPOULOS: "-- kicking and punching --"
TRUMP: "-- frankly, that was a, you know, it was a tough thing to watch. And I watched that. But why would a protester walk into a room with a Ku Klux Klan outfit on?"
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Well, it looked like he was wearing an American flag right there. But does that justify violence --"
TRUMP: "Well, you would have seen him --"
STEPHANOPOULOS: "— punching and kicking?"
TRUMP: "— if you would have seen him just before he went up the stairs, him and his partner were wearing — one of them was wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit."
