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'Attack, attack': Wayne Root fantasises about Hillary Clinton dying, calls for pitchforks and blow torches

Washington: As Donald Trump campaigns with renewed vigour with polls closing in the last days of the campaign, some of his supporters and surrogates have again been criticised for ugly and even violent political language. 

Mr Trump was introduced at a rally in Nevada on Sunday by the conservative activist Wayne Allyn Root, who revved up the crowd by describing them as "Trump warriors" and members of a "Trump army" engaged in a "citizen revolution".

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Trump warm up guy fantasises about Hillary's death

Trump rally speaker Wayne Root fantasises about the death of Hillary Clinton.

Root, the author of the book Angry White Male, described a fantasy of his in which Hillary Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin, whose husband's use of a computer led the FBI to reopen the investigation into Clinton's email, were in a movie with the same ending as Thelma and Louise. In that film the two female leads, badgered by a parade of male bullies, famously suicide by driving off a cliff.

"This is why we were born. This is a 10-day run." Mr Root told the audience, "attack, attack, attack. We will never accept defeat. We will never give up."

He said, "working class Americans, Christians, gun owners, small business owners, military veterans and taxpayers" would violently take over the capital with, "pitchforks, jack hammers and blow torches."

"We're coming to tear it down. We're coming to rip it up. We're coming to kick your ass. And we're coming to put you in prison," Mr Root  told some 10,000 people by his own account.

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In a tweet, he said he didn't call for Mrs Clinton's death in a tweet that said media reports that alluded to it were part of the "fraud" denounced by Mr Trump in his "rigged election" charges.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas on Sunday. Photo: AP

During the rally when a "U-S-A, U-S-A" chant broke out one supporter wearing a Hillary for Prison t-shirt screamed at the press pen, "Jew-S-A! Jew-S-A!"

Asked about the incident later by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Mr Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway disavowed the man's behaviour. "[His] conduct is completely unacceptable and does not reflect our campaign or our candidate," she said.

Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Saturday. Photo: Bloomberg

But violent rhetoric has long been associated with the campaign and Mr Trump has so far failed to explicitly condemn it.

Al Baldasaro, a Trump advisor who has spoken at many rallies was investigated by the Secret Service in July after saying in an interview, "Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."

Katy Perry speaks at a rally in for Hillary Clinton in Las Vegas.
Katy Perry speaks at a rally in for Hillary Clinton in Las Vegas. Photo: AP

Secret Service agents spoke to Mr Trump himself after he suggested in a speech that gun rights supporters could prevent Mrs Clinton from appointing pro-gun control judges should she win office.

As far back as the primary campaign Trump supporters assaulted minorities in rallies and in one case in Boston even in the street.

Wayne Allyn Root, in a photo from his Twitter profile.
Wayne Allyn Root, in a photo from his Twitter profile. Photo: Twitter

During Mr Trump's nominating convention in Cleveland Republican office-holders queued up on the floor of the convention to mime strangling and beating a delegate wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and Hillary Clinton mask.

Mr Trump has also been criticised for telling his supporters that a conspiracy including leadership from both parties, the Department of Justice and cabal of international bankers, is planning to steal the election.

"It really is hard to think of democratic politicians who've done this — anywhere," Shaun Bowler, a professor of political science at the University of California Riverside told Vox. "He's done quite a bit of damage already."

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