NEW YORK: The US election campaign hit a new low this week. At a North Carolina rally, a Donald Trump supporter was seen punching a protester and then saying: “Next time, we might have to kill him.”

Multiple videos showed the protester, 26-year-old Rakeem Jones, raising a middle finger to the crowd as security escorted him from the rally — before the unnamed supporter punched him to the ground.

When a reporter from a TV show tracked down the punching supporter, 78-year-old John McGraw, he was unrepentant.

Asked if he liked the rally, he said: “You bet I liked it. Knocking the hell out of that big mouth.”

And asked why he punched the protester, he said: “Number one, we don’t know if he’s ISIS. We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American, cussing me... If he wants it laid out, I laid it out.”

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2016