Donald Trump, criticized recently for inciting violence on the campaign trail, said Wednesday there could be "riots" if he lost the Republican nomination at this year's convention, suggesting "bad things would happen."
CNN host Chris Cuomo asked Trump, who increased his likelihood of clinching the nomination Tuesday night with victories in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina, what his plan would be if he didn't reach 1,237 delegates before the Republican National Convention. Trump noted his delegate lead, and added he felt there would be a natural "healing process" heading toward the convention that would unite the party behind him.
However, he said there could be consequences if a brokered convention kept him from the nomination, even if he'd gotten the most votes of any candidate heading into Cleveland.
"I don't think you can say we don't get it automatically," he said. "I think you'd have riots. I think you'd have riots. I'm representing ... many, many millions of people, in many cases first-time voters ... Many Democrats, many independents coming in. That's what the big story is really, Chris.
"The really big story is how many people are voting in these primaries. The numbers are astronomical. Now, if you disenfranchise those people, and you say, well, I'm sorry, you're 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you've never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn't lead it, but I think bad things would happen."
Trump claimed this week he had never offered to pay legal fees for those arrested at his rallies for hitting protesters disrupting the events, but he has done so in the past.