Donald Trump called Bernie Sanders "weak" for giving up the microphone to Black Lives Matter protesters this past weekend, suggesting that he or his staff would physically fight off demonstrators if they tried to take over a stage he was speaking at.
"I would never give up my microphone," Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday night, with the comments starting at the 13:10 mark in the video above. "I thought that was disgusting. That showed such weakness — the way he was taken away by two young women. … They just took the whole place over." He added, "That will never happen with me. I don't know if I'll do the fighting myself or if other people will. But that was a disgrace. … I felt badly for him, but it showed that he's weak."
Sanders lost control of a Seattle rally on Saturday after two Black Lives Matter protesters confronted him on stage, demanded to speak, and criticized his campaign for not paying enough attention to criminal justice and race issues. Rally organizers ultimately decided to shut down the event, forcing Sanders to leave without giving most of his speech.
But short of physically fighting off the protesters, it's unclear what Sanders and rally organizers could have done to take back the stage. Trump's comments suggest he'd be willing to fight protesters if he needed to, as MSNBC's Chris Hayes pointed out on Twitter.
Did Trump just threaten to physically fight #BlackLivesMatter protesters?
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) August 11, 2015
It's unlikely it will come to that. So far, Black Lives Matter protesters have targeted Democratic candidates who are sympathetic to their cause — and Trump, who has a history of racially charged remarks, doesn't meet that standard.
