Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway lashed out at a Republican voter who was beaten over the weekend while protesting Donald Trump.
At a rally in Reno on Saturday, 33-year-old Austyn Crites said that he was beaten by Trump supporters for holding a "Republicans Against Trump" sign. He later learned that the scuffle had prompted Secret Service agents to whisk Trump from the stage.
Crites told USA Today that he was not part of Hillary Clinton's campaign, but he had briefly canvassed for the Democratic candidate because he wanted to do all he could to defeat Trump. Crites said that he had been a Republican for six years and that he was also a fan of independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin.
But on Sunday, Conway suggested to Fox News that Crites deserved the beating because he was "probably a plant" sent in by the Clinton campaign.
"This protester, we're finding out this morning, he's a Democrat, I'm told," Conway opined.
"Hillary supporter," Fox News host Steve Doocy scoffed.
"And so people are trying to spin it, 'Oh, this is the kind of action you get at your rallies,'" Conway continued. "This guy was a Democrat, probably a plant."
"And look, I just think it's a microcosmic example of how desperate they're becoming," she insisted. "They're following us all over the map. We're scrambling the electoral map. We're playing follow the leader with us in the lead."
