Trump rally sucker-punch case comes to a happy ending of forgiveness
After a long, brutal presidential campaign punctuated with calls for violence from President-elect Donald Trump that sometimes came to fruition, one example of a physical political confrontation has gotten a happy ending and given our dead, cold hearts a sliver of hope.
On Wednesday, in a North Carolina court, a now-chastened John McGraw pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct stemming from an incident in which he sucker-punched Rakeem Jones at a Donald Trump rally earlier this year.
He was also ordered to pay a $250 fine on top of $180 in court costs and given a 30-day suspended sentence with 12 months of unsupervised probation.
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Jones was also in attendance on Wednesday and after the sentencing, as McGraw apologized for the attack, the two embraced in a too-rare sign of reconciliation.
During the emotional embrace, a tearful McGraw said, "We're caught up in a political mess today and you and me, we gotta heal our country" and an infinitely patient Jones embraced him. McGraw had also insisted in court that the incident was not racially motivated.
Afterwards, Jones told reporters, "It just felt good being able to shake his hand."
The original incident happened in March at a Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina when McGraw, a 78-year-old Trump supporter threw a sucker punch at Jones, a protestor being led out by security.
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After the incident, McGraw, in a video clip published by Inside Edition, showed no regret, saying, "He deserved it... The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.”
Wednesday wasn't the first time the two had spoken since the skirmish. In October, the pair appeared together on the Panacea Open Courtroom, having a constructive conversation via Google Hangouts that set the stage for Wednesday's meeting. (McGraw explained at that time that the apparent death wish was taken out of context and not intended for Jones.)
Maybe there's hope -- just a little, slight piece of hope -- that similar examples of forgiveness (seriously, Jones should be given an award) and healing for the nation will follow. It feels like an uphill battle right now, but we'll hang on to this moment for a while.
Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
