Donald Trump's supporters were exercising their right to freedom of speech outside a
Southern California rally that turned violent Thursday, and national campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson insisted that it was not them "that were defacing police cars and breaking windows."
"We learned from experience at some of our rallies there are people being paid to cause controversy, to cause major trouble and now they take it to another level with destruction of property," Pierson told Fox News' Martha MacCallum on the
"America's Newsroom" program. "It is kind of sad that this is what it has come down to considering Trump supporters that were out there were flying the American flag and the anti-Trump supporters were flying Mexican flags."
MacCallum noted a report that there was one man who was holding a Mexican flag who was surrounded by Trump supporters, who were shouting at him to "build a wall," and asked if the Trump campaign would be doing something to "lower the temperature."
"Mr. Trump said he does not condone violence but this is still a free-speech issue," replied Pierson. "If they are just saying 'build a wall,' that is reiterating Mr. Trump's policy. We can see the video...it was not the Trump supporters that were defacing police cars and breaking windows. That is the important part here."
And as it was not Trump supporters, she continued, "it will be up to whoever these people are supporting to calm them down."
Such violence is a "bullying tactic, an intimidation tactic" the left uses, Pierson told MacCallum, and it won't silence Trump or his supporters.
"That is what they want us to do, to back down off of policies like building a wall which won't happen, so it is not up to Donald Trump to control other people," said Pierson.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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