Police consider charging Donald Trump with inciting a riot

Police in the US state of North Carolina are considering charging Republican frontrunner Donald Trump with inciting a riot, local media reported on Monday.

The Cumberland Country Sheriff's department is considering filing the charges against the billionaire businessman after violent altercations erupted at a rally he held at Fayetteville, North Carolina, last Wednesday.

Trump supporter John Franklin McGraw was arrested for punching a black protesters and threatening to kill him at the rally.

"We are looking at the totality of these circumstances, including any additional charges against Mr. McGraw, including the potential of whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot," Sheriff's Office lawyer Ronnie Mitchell told The Fayetteville Observer.

When protesters at the rally interrupted Trump's address, he said: "See, in the good old days this didn't use to happen, because they used to treat them very rough," he said referring to protesters. "We've become very weak."

On Friday, a Trump rally in Chicago was canceled due to security concerns as large numbers of protesters showed up to denounce the presidential candidate's divisive rhetoric.

Scenes of chaos ensued as soon as the cancelation announcement was made, with violent clashes between Trump supporters and opponents.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders accused Trump of inciting violence at his rallies and called on him to tone down his rhetoric.

Both candidates pointed to a Trump rally in Nevada where he said he wished he could punch a protester in the face, and later suggested that he would pay for his supporters' legal fees if they were to punch protesters.

True to his word, Donald Trump on Sunday said that he might pay John Franklin McGraw's legal fees, saying that the man who sucker-punched a protester "obviously loves the country".