Not Kidding: Senior Donald Trump Advisor Says Riots Aren’t Violence

The 2016 Republican presidential primary race is such that literally nothing comes a a shock anymore, but sometimes, it can at least mildly surprise you. Into that category you can place Sam Clovis, senior campaign advisor to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who offered a molten-hot take when he was confronted about Trump’s prediction/threat of riots if the Republican Party brokers away his nomination at their convention.

On Friday morning’s New Day, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked Clovis to respond to Speaker Paul Ryan‘s scolding of Trump for the riots remark, and Clovis just sort of wished it away:

Camerota: What do you think about the idea that he was suggesting that there would be violence? Threatening that there would be violence?

Clovis: I don’t think he said violence, he said riots…

Camerota: Riots are violence, by definition.

Clovis: I don’t accept that.

The stunning thing is that it kind of worked, Clovis ran off at the mouth long enough for Camerota to just move on and never ask Clovis to describe what a non-violent riot would look like.

To be clear, Trump didn’t just blurt out “riots” as a one-off, he said it three times in the course of a detailed explanation of how he saw the convention going. In case you missed it, here it is again:

I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re, you know, 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think you would have riots. I think you would have riots.

… I think you would see problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen. I really do. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.