Washington, Aug 21 (EFE).- Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Friday described as "terrible" the news of the beating dealt a homeless Hispanic man in Boston by a pair of brothers, who said they were backing the billionaire's anti-immigration policies.
"Boston incident is terrible. We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect. I would never condone violence," Trump said on his Twitter account.
The current leader in the polls for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination seemed to change his tune somewhat about the beating, which he at first appeared to shrug off by observing that "people who are following me are very passionate."
"They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate," Trump said Thursday when asked about the incident.
Boston police said Thursday that the brothers' violence could have been at least partly inspired by the controversial billionaire's comments about immigrants.
The beating occurred in the early hours Thursday when the 58-year-old victim was sleeping on the street near a metro station in South Boston - and woke up to find the pair of brothers urinating on his face, after which they began punching him and hitting him with a metal pole.
The daily Boston Globe said the preliminary police report showed that one of the brothers said after the assault that "Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported," and both kept spouting insults against immigrants even after they were arrested.
The real-estate magnate has not stopped arousing controversy with his immigrant-bashing comments since last June 16, when he announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," Trump said at the time, later adding that he promotes the building of a wall along the southern border with Mexico to keep undocumented immigrants out.
