Protect Trump's free speech even as he threatens yours
It is more than enough for Trump to corral reporters in the back of the room and mock them in his speeches. His staff members don't need to manhandle them, too.
Free speech is not entirely free. Even Trump must avoid sounding too provocative or he could be charged with incitement to riot. As a result, he denies condoning violence even as he justifies and encourages it.
"I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you."
"In the good old days this doesn't happen, because they used to treat them very, very rough."
"I love the old days. 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, folks."
"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would ya?" He said at one rally. "Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them,"
After he promised to "pay for the legal fees" of anyone who did that, he would "take a look at" paying the legal fees of an elderly white man who sucker-punched a black protester who was being escorted out of a North Carolina rally.
When you have offered to pay the legal fees of those who "knock the hell out of" protesters, it's pretty hard to argue that you are blameless when riots break out. Yet Trump plays the victim with complete indifference to contrary evidence, including his own words.
Unbowed at a Boca Raton rally on Sunday night, Trump boasted about "how well we handled" those earlier confrontations. Surrounded by police, Secret Service agents and other security, Trump taunted: "Do we have a protester, anyone?" and "Is there a disrupter in the house?"
Yes, as much as I deplore much of what Donald Trump has to say, as a famous old saying goes, I will defend to the death his right to say it.
But if you poke a stick at a grizzly, you should not be surprised that the grizzly strikes back.
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
