20:28

A Donald Trump campaign rally was marred by violence yet again today as the Republican nominee attacked Hillary Clinton for calling his supporters deplorable.

Donald Trump. Photograph: Brian Blanco/Getty Images

A Trump supporter apparently punched a protester at a rally held at the US Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina. The scuffle was the first violent incident at a Trump rally in months. Although throughout the primary season, Trump campaign events had been marked by violence by both Trump supporters and protesters, culminating in near riots in Chicago and San Jose, California, they had been comparatively peaceful in recent months. Prior to being punched, the protester reportedly directed an obscene gesture in Trump’s direction.

The incident happened as Trump attempted to attack Clinton for her statement that half of his supporters belong in “a basket of deplorables”. Although the former secretary of state has since backed down from the comment, she has continued to insist her opponent has “built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices”.

Trump has tried to paint this as an attack by Clinton on blue-collar Americans. “Hillary Clinton spoke with hatred in her heart for these working-class Americans,” he said in Asheville on Monday night, in an effort to reinforce his attacks on his opponent as an insider member of the Beltway elite. The Republican nominee went on to repeat of Clinton: “She talks about people like they are objects, not human beings.”