"I'd like to punch him in the face," Trump said, remarking that a man disrupting his rally was escorted out with a smile on his face. "He's smiling, having a good time."
Trump also claimed the protester was "nasty as hell" and accused the man of trying to punch the security officers forcing him out of the rally, though the man did not appear to be fighting off those officers.
"In the old days," Trump added, protesters would be "carried out on stretchers."
"We're not allowed to push back anymore," Trump said.
While Trump has at times urged his supporters not to hurt protesters, he has also repeatedly suggested that supporters should be handled more roughly.
When a Black Lives Matter protester was punched and kicked by attendees at a Trump rally last fall, Trump remarked the next day that "maybe he should have been roughed up."
Shortly after that incident, the Trump campaign began making an announcement at the start of its rallies urging supporters to not harm any protesters, but instead shout "Trump, Trump, Trump" and wait for security officials to escort the protesters out.
The Trump campaign did not make the announcement before Monday's rally. It was unclear what the man who disrupted it was protesting.
Moments earlier, another man raised a banner that read, "Veterans to Trump: End hate speech against Muslims."
At a Ted Cruz rally in Elko earlier on Monday, Cruz supporter Glenn Beck condemned those sorts of outbursts by Trump -- calling him a bully and asking rural Nevada voters to reject that kind of rhetoric.
Beck faulted Trump for threatening protesters at earlier rallies, and noted that Trump issued a threatening tweet on Monday to the Ricketts family, which has been politically active in recent cycles.
"I hear the (Ricketts) family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $'s against me. They better be careful. They have a lot to hide," Trump tweeted.
"When we have a candidate that threatens people," Beck said. "This is not American. This is not equal justice. This is not who were are."
"If we give in to our anger, if we start to go down that path and we start to listen to the bullies. We lose what made us great," Beck said before introducing Cruz.
credit cnn.com
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