After hedging on the issue for weeks, Donald Trump is pledging he won't run as an independent candidate should he lose the Republican nomination for President. The announcement may have been overshadowed by what happened outside, however. After the announcement, Trump aides hit and pushed anti-Trump protesters demonstrating on a public sidewalk. NY1's Josh Robin filed this report.
Protesters clashed with Donald Trump's employees Thursday as the staffers tried to move and take signs from anti-Trump protesters.
Some along the Fifth Avenue sidewalk were dressed as members of the KKK.
They wanted to draw attention to the Republican's call to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
"They took all our banners and stuff. They wanted to rip them up but we rescued some of them," said protester Efrain Galicia.
Video shows security staff ripping signs away from demonstrators, causing a tussle with pushes and punches.
Trump aides said the demonstrators were blocking the sidewalk. Police were ultimately called.
The fights came as the Republican frontrunner attempts to broadcast a more tolerant side.
"I love the people of Mexico. I love the Hispanics. I have thousands of Hispanics right now working for me," Trump said.
The billionaire was in Manhattan after meeting with the chairman of the Republican Party.
Trump pledged to support the nominee, even if he's not it.
Listen closely, though, and you hear the unpredictable, and thrice married, Trump appear to give himself an out.
"I have no intention of changing my mind," he said.
Still, the pledge, for now, defuses an attack that Trump is out only for himself and not Republicans eager to recapture the White House.
Trump has been feuding with Jeb Bush, the former Florida Governor. Bush's camp says trump is a fake conservative who is tearing apart the country. Trump is returning fire that Bush is low energy—bought by special interest—even mocking Bush speaking in Spanish.
The fluent Bush is married to a woman born in Mexico.
"We're a nation that speaks English. And I think while we're in this nation, we should be speaking English. And that's how assimilation takes," Trump said.
In all, Trump also took more two dozen questions from the packed news conference on topics ranging from Kanye West, who he says he loves—to Hillary Clinton, whom he suggested could be soon indicted.
There was one thing, though, that Trump won't directly address.
That was a question about a poll showing a majority of Trump supporters also think President Barack Obama is a Muslim who wasn't born in the country.