Ahead of Thursday’s dueling town hall events, President Trump rallied some 2,000 supporters in Greenville, North Carolina, where people packed shoulder to shoulder and few wore masks. In a shocking moment, Trump appeared to admit that he ordered U.S. Marshals to carry out the extrajudicial killing of anti-fascist activist Michael Reinoehl in Washington state on September 3.

President Donald Trump: “We sent in the U.S. Marshals. Took 15 minutes. It was over. Fifteen minutes, it was over. We got him. They knew who he was. They didn’t want to arrest him. And 15 minutes, that ended.”

Last month Trump bragged about Reinoehl’s killing in an interview with Fox News, saying, “There has to be retribution.” Reinoehl was believed to have killed a far-right protester.