General Trump, Sanders trade blame over Chicago protests

WolfDesigns · March 13, 2016

Source; http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/12/trump-blames-thugs-canceling-chicago-rally/81685100/

CHICAGO —Donald Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, on Saturday first blamed "thugs" for his decision to cancel a rally in Chicago over alleged security concerns and then said supporters of his Democratic rivals caused disruptions there.

"It is (Hillary) Clinton and (Bernie) Sanders people who disrupted my rally in Chicago - and then they say I must talk to my people," Trump tweeted. "Phony politicians!"

Sanders responded that Trump is a pathological liar.

"Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests," the Vermont senator said in a statement. “What caused the violence at Trump’s rally is a campaign whose words and actions have encouraged it on the part of his supporters."

The Chicago Police Department said on that four men and a woman were arrested at the rally after brief scuffles broke out at the event at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion. Four of the individuals were still in police custody on Saturday morning but had not yet been charged, said Officer Jose Estrada, a department spokesman. One individual was given an ordinance citation and released.

However, CBS News said its reporter, Sopan Deb, was detained by law enforcement while covering the scene.

Another man, activist William Calloway, said he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. Calloway said police told him they arrested him because he failed to immediately exit the arena after the rally was canceled and guests were ordered to exit. The police department, however, said he was not among the five they had taken into custody. Calloway said that he was arrested by UIC campus police.

Calloway played a prominent role in the court-ordered release of a police video of a white officer fatally shooting a black teenager, which triggered months of protests in the city. Calloway said he believes that his role in the McDonald case may have factored into police detaining him. He said police released him about three hours after taking him into custody.

"They knew who I was," Calloway said in a phone interview Saturday.

Anthony Guglielmi, a police department spokesman, said the Trump campaign did not consult the police department before canceling. "The decision was made by the campaign on its own," Guglielmi said.

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump heckles demonstrators before the start of a rally at the University of

Illinois at Chicago on March 11, 2016. (Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)

Trump held a rally in the Dayton suburb of Vandalia Saturday afternoon and planned an event in Cleveland ahead of primary voting in Ohio on Tuesday. Trump denied some media reports that a rally in Cincinnati on Sunday had been canceled.

On Twitter, Trump blamed the protesters for Friday's canceled rally. "The organized group of people, many of them thugs, who shut down our First Amendment rights in Chicago, have totally energized America!" he said on Twitter.

At the Dayton rally, Trump said some of the people taunting and harassing his supporters in Chicago "represented Bernie, our communist friend."

"With Bernie, he should really get up and say to his people, 'stop, stop.' Not me," Trump said.

Chaos ensued after organizers announced at 6:30 p.m. that Trump, who never arrived at the pavilion, had scrubbed the event. Some protesters rushed the arena floor in celebration, many shouting, "Bernie, Bernie" and "We stopped Trump!"

Police ejected at least a half dozen anti-Trump demonstrators, including one man who got onto the stage and approached the podium.

Joe Fritz, 20, who came to hear Trump speak, said a woman punched him outside the arena after the rally was canceled.

He said the woman, who was with a girl about 10 years old, landed a glancing blow to his chin after he questioned her for yelling epithets toward police and about Trump. "I told her, 'What kind of example are you setting?'" Fritz said.

Fritz said he and his friend were then surrounded by other anti-Trump protesters who screamed at them before police pulled them out of the crowd.

Still, the pushing and shoving was brief, and some protesters said security concerns were overstated.

"(Trump) felt us tonight and felt our power tonight," said Angelica Salazar, 30, of West Chicago, Ill. Salazar, who went to speak out against Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, said she did not feel unsafe.

Matthew Ross, a Chicago activist, said suggestions from Trump that protesters presented a security risk don't hold up.

"Have you seen what his supporters have incited at their rallies?" asked Ross, who said a Trump supporter threw water on him after it was announced that the rally was canceled. "I think what [Trump] is doing is inciting violence."

Afterward, Trump spoke by phone with several news networks and described many anti-Trump protesters, including those at previous rallies, as violent. "I just don't want people hurt," he told MSNBC.

Trump has been criticized about violent comments he and his supporters have made on the campaign trail. When attendees at an event in November kicked a Black Lives Matter activist, Trump said, "Maybe he should have been roughed up."

Another supporter, John McGraw, sucker-punched a protester at a rally Wednesday in North Carolina. McGraw later told Inside Edition that "we might have to kill him" next time the protester shows up.

Trump insisted that anti-Trump protesters were instigating incidents at his events. “I certainly don’t incite violence," he said.

“If a protester is swinging a fist at a man or a group of men, and if they end up going back," he said, "I’m not looking to do him any favors."

Trump's rivals for the GOP nomination quickly weighed in on the uproar.

Sen. Marco Rubio, speaking Saturday in Florida, blamed the rhetoric of the front-runner for the violence, and the media for ignoring his "offensive" statements for too long.

"This is what happen when a leading presidential candidate goes around feeding into a narrative of anger and bitterness and frustration," Rubio said.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's closest rival in the race, noted that "in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top."

"When the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence, to punch people in the face, the predictable consequence of that is that it escalates," Cruz told reporters in Illinois. "Today is unlikely to be the last such incidence."

Fellow GOP candidate John Kasich blamed Friday's events on Trump sowing "seeds of division."

"Some let their opposition to his views slip beyond protest into violence, but we can never let that happen," the Ohio governor said in a statement.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said the "divisive rhetoric" of the Trump campaign should be of "grave concern."

"We all have our differences, and we know many people across the country feel angry," Clinton said in a statement. "We need to address that anger together."