TRUMP on Protester: ‘I’d Like to Punch Him in the Face’. [archive]

The protester — the third one to interrupt him at the event and who Mr. Trump said had thrown punches at security guards — really drew the candidate’s ire. As the man was being escorted away, Mr. Trump repeatedly told the crowd that he wished for the “old days,” adding, “You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher.”

“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya,” Mr. Trump added.

Mr. Trump has faced criticism over his response to protesters before. After a Black Lives Matter demonstrator was pushed to the ground at one of his events in November, Mr. Trump said in an interview after the episode that “maybe he should have been roughed up,” before later pulling back from his comments.

But on Monday night, he held nothing back, and the crowd of thousands met every one of his lines with whooping cheers.