Trump, Carson, Fiorina, and Christie would describe the Civil Rights movement today as “disgusting…infantile behavior…we’re being a little too tolerant…much further toward anarchy…political correctness!”

The idea is stunning. Did we just see the GOP presidential candidates inject themselves into a local campus’ problem with racism?

Yes, in the most bizarre way too. Here’s what happened:

The two frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination criticized protests at the University of Missouri Thursday, arguing that the university administrators who resigned in the wake of racially-charged incidents may have set a harmful precedent by acquiescing to students' demands.

"I think it's disgusting," Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network. "I think the two people that resigned are weak, ineffective people. I think that when they resigned, they set something in motion that's gonna be a disaster for the next long period of time."

Republican candidate Ben Carson also said Thursday that students at the school were giving in to "infantile behavior. We're being a little bit too tolerant, I guess you might say, accepting infantile behavior. I don't care which side it comes from. To say that I have the right to violate your civil rights because you're offending me is un-American," he said on FOX News' The Kelly File. "The officials at these places must recognize that and have the moral courage to stand up it. Because if they don't, it will grow, it will exacerbate the situation and we will move much further toward anarchy than anybody can imagine, and much more quickly," he added.

Fellow Republican Carly Fiorina echoed concerns about "political correctness" on college campuses, telling reporters Thursday evening that the phenomenon is "choking candid conversations in this nation. One of the things you see going on, on so many college campuses now is kids are taught, you know, if anything offends their sensibilities that they should stand up and say, 'oh don't talk to me that about that.'" she said.

Speaking in Iowa, New Jersey Republican Chris Christie blamed the unrest on an atmosphere of "lawlessness" fostered by the president. "When people think justice is not applied evenly and fairly, they take matters into their own hands," he said during an appearance in Iowa.Democratic presidential candidates have been generally supportive of the protesters, emphasizing the students' fight to address the racially-charged incidents that originally prompted the tensions in Missouri and at other institutions nationwide.

Bernie Sanders said in a tweet that "it's time to address structural racism on college campuses."

Media Matters put it this way:

Only on Fox News are armed militia members protesting federal law "patriotic," while university students and faculty speaking out against racism are labeled as anarchists.

But that's not all, as you'll see in this story from Rachel Maddow about a Trump crowd reaction to another protester:

Johari Osayi Idusuyi, who received internet acclaim when she was seen on camera reading Claudia Rankine's “Citizen: An American Lyric,” a book of poetry about race, at a Donald Trump rally, talks with Rachel Maddow about what happened in the seats...