Pastor backing Trump on CNN: 'I'm not going to say I don't support' punching protesters in the face

Donald Trump surrogate Pastor Darrell Scott told CNN on Tuesday that he was not going to condemn the Republican presidential candidate's desire to punch protesters in the face.

At a campaign event in Nevada on Monday, Trump had lashed out at a heckler, who he called "nasty as hell."

“Here’s a guy, throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everything else, when we’re talking,” Trump told his supporters. “The guards are very gentle with him. He’s walking out, like, big high-fives, smiling, laughing."

“I’d like to punch him in the face, I tell ya," he added.

CNN noted that there was no evidence that the man had acted violently.

"I know you're a supporter of Trump," CNN's Poppy Harlow told Scott during a panel discussion on Tuesday. "You're also a man of faith. Do you support that rhetoric, that language? Does it bother you at all?"

"What I don't support is the behavior of the protester," Scott replied.

"No," Harlow interrupted. "I just want to ask you about the language of the man you're supporting to be commander-in-chief. Do you support it?"

"I'm not going to say I support it; I'm not going to say I don't support it," Scott insisted. "It is what it is. Those are Trump's feelings. I can't dictate and determine how he feels about a situation."

"Would I have handled it that way?" he asked. "I don't know. I wasn't in that situation. I don't know what I would have said. But if I was trying to address a crowd at a meeting that I coordinated, and I had someone that continued to try to disrupt what I was saying, that they came to my meeting with bad intent then they would have to be dealt with."

Watch the video below from CNN, broadcast Feb. 23, 2016.