Donald Trump said he believes the way judges and justices are treated by "the radical far left" is illegal and should be punishable by "serious fines and beyond that"

At a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, the Republican presidential nominee was discussing the criticism many of his Supreme Court appointees have faced recently

Multiple justices have been embroiled in controversies, including Samuel Alito, whose household flew flags associated with the "Stop the Steal" movement, and Clarence Thomas who did not disclose numerous luxurious gifts and trips funded by a wealthy Republican donor

Several of them have faced calls to recuse themselves from certain cases and even to be impeached

Trump was speaking about these types of reactions when he said: "I believe they are playing the ref, they are constantly criticizing some of our greatest judges and justices"

He said later: "I really think it's illegal what they do with the judges and justices"

"Remember the term, playing the ref with our judges and our justices should be punishable by very serious crimes and beyond that," Trump added toward the end of his speech

He explained that the term "playing the ref" was a reference to Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight

Trump said: "You know the great Bobby Knight—he supported me—he used to fight the refs all the time, scream at them. Bobby, Bobby please don't do that, it's not going to work

"And he said: 'You're right, it's not going to work, it's going to work for the next one'

"And the next call, there would be a flagrant foul and they wouldn't call it, they didn't want to get screamed at

"The radical left harasses our judges and harasses our justices. They scream at them, they call them names, they say 'they're incompetent, they're horrible, they should be impeached'—they're constantly saying they should be impeached"