During a rally in St. Louis, Donald Trump lamented, yeah lamented, that nobody wants
to hurt each other anymore. Look, he said it right here.
[TRUMP] Nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right. And, they're being politically correct
the way they take them out. So it takes a little bit longer, and honestly protestors
they realize it. They realize that there are no consequences to protesting anymore.
This is the core of Donald Trump's ideology. The protestors who interrupted his rally,
the political correctness that kept police from cracking their skulls and the media that
always seems to take their side, this is what is keeping America from being great again.
We used to be strong and tough, we didn't take shit from anybody. Now we're weak and
sensitive, and we're political correct. And we take shit from everybody.
[TRUMP] I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they're
awful in a place like this? They'd be carried out in a stretcher, folks. I'd like to punch
him in the face, I'll tell ya.
Trump's core question to his supporters, to the country, is how are we going to beat China
if we can't even shut down a protester? How are we gonna crush ISIS if we're so afraid
of hurting people's feelings?
Violence is scary. But violence as a political ideology, that is something different. It
is something terrifying. And that's where Trump, and Trump's campaign has gone.
This is Donald Trump's promise to his supporters.
You protect him, you do what's necessary and he'll protect you. He'll pay your legal fees,
he'll back your lie. That's his promise, you protect him and he'll protect you. He'll use
his money, his power, his anything. If they fix his problem, he will make sure they don't
pay any consequences for it.
[TRUMP] So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them.
Seriously, just knock the hell out of them. I promise you, I will pay the legal fees.
I promise, I promise.
But months later, Donald Trump made good on that promise. At a rally of his, a African
American protester was being taken out of the building. And while he was being taken
out, and you can see it on the video, he was sucker-punched by a Trump supporter.
[MCGRAW] Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.
Completely cold-blooded assault. That Trump supporter has been arrested, he's been charged
with the crime. And Donald Trump was asked on one of the Sunday shows [if he] would he
pay for this man's legal fees.
[TRUMP] I've instructed my people to look into it.
The great mistake the media makes with Donald Trump is that he doesn't have an ideology,
that he's just some kind of reality star, or celebrity, or carnival barker. But he does
have an ideology. He is a nationalist.
At the core of any appeal like that is a very simple equation: the us must defeat the them.
That's it. That is the core of nationalism.
And there's a reason nationalistic appeals like that easily lend themselves to violence.
What Trump supporters hear at his rally's is that America used to be great, and that
its greatness has been taken away. And they're told why; they're told who took it away. Those
protesters, the Chinese, the immigrants, the Muslims. They're told that the reason these
losers, these outsiders are being able to drag America down is that we are letting them.
We are letting these protesters stand up and interrupt our rallies. We are letting the
Mexican government give us this terrible deal. And they're told what they need to do to stop
it too. That, they need to be tough again. They need to believe again. They need to not
be so politically correct. And that if they're willing to stand up and do that, Donald Trump
will have their back. He'll pay their legal fees.
There is an authoritarian impulse in America there always is, there always has been. And
now they have found their leader. And he is telling them exactly what to do and why they
need to do it. This is ugly, but it is coherent. What Donald Trump is offering is an argument
and a solution. An explanation and an ideology. What he's saying isn't unclear, it's not confusing,
it might be dangerous, but it is extremely, extremely clear.
[TRUMP] I honestly, can I be honest with you? It adds to the flavor. It really does. Makes
it more exciting. I mean, isn't this better than listening to a long, boring speech?
And this is why Donald Trump is something new and something scarier in American life.
He is a man with an evident appetite for suppressing dissent through violence. He is a man who
believes security forces should be unleashed from political correctness. He's a man who
will not just play to the violent instincts of the crowd, but promise to protect them
if they become violent. He's a man arguing for a country where protesting has terrible,
terrible consequences. Where dissent is put down with force. And his supporters are listening.
The results are playing out before us on television, night after night.
If Donald Trump wins this election and America goes down a dark path, we will never be able
to say that we weren't warned. We'll never be able to say we didn't know what was coming.
Donald Trump was very clear, he told us all and we saw it. We knew exactly what he was.
The question is will we reject it.