Pepper spray in Kansas City as Trump vows to press on with rallies
Republican
frontrunner praises supporters and blames ‘these other people’
for disorder after protests forced him to call off Chicago appearance
Edward Helmore in
New York and Sabrina Siddiqui in Largo, Florida and agencies
Sunday 13 March 2016
03.13 GMT
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/12/donald-trump-cancels-cincinnati-rally-clashes-chicago
Police used pepper
spray on crowds outside a Donald Trump rally in Kansas City as the
Republican frontrunner continued to face angry protests that a day
earlier forced him to call off a major campaign appearance in
Chicago.
As Trump’s
electoral machine regrouped after a humiliation at the University of
Illinois Chicago Pavilion, there were further disruptions inside the
Midland Theatre in Missouri. Trump was just a few minutes into his
speech on Saturday night when the protests began. “I’ve got
plenty of time. ... We’re in no rush. We’re in no rush,” he
told the crowd.
The protesters
appear to be scattered throughout the theater and Trump remarked on
how many were in the crowd, bemoaning they were taking seats from his
supporters, “thousands” of whom were waiting outside.
Kansas City police
confirmed pepper spray was used amid protests in the streets around
the theater and also said a “fogger” was deployed to disperse
“two large groups (200+) preparing to fight”.
Chief Darryl Forte
of Kansas City police defended the use of pepper spray as “better
than a riot with mass casualties”. On Twitter he praised the
majority of protesters who had “lawfully expressed themselves,
while lawfully assembling”.
Trump’s campaign
has vowed to carry on with a rally in Cincinnati on Sunday after the
billionaire postponed a Chicago event on Friday night. After the
announcement, a tense but largely non-violent scene descended into
chaotic clashes between supporters and anti-Trump protesters.
Hope Hicks, a
spokesperson for Trump, on Saturday denied a Reuters report that he
had canceled an Ohio rally because of security concerns. Trump
himself later tweeted that the rally would go as planned – even
after secret service agents briefly swept up to his podium out of
concern someone would rush the stage.
The rally in
Cincinnati is due to take place on Sunday afternoon, two days ahead
of Tuesday’s Ohio primary, in which the Republican frontrunner will
seek to knock Ohio governor John Kasich from the presidential race.
The heightened tensions were visible at a rally Trump spoke at in
Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday: at one point four secret service agents
rushed onto the stage to prevent anyone from reaching him there.
Political leaders on
both sides of the party divide, meanwhile, tried to dress wounds that
were opened in Chicago. Hillary Clinton said “violence has no place
in our politics”, and Republicans Kasich and Ted Cruz blamed Trump
for the inflammatory rhetoric.
Friday’s Trump
event saw myriad protesters, including students and people affiliated
with the black lives matter movement, demonstrate against Trump’s
policies on immigration and racially tinged comments.
The protest, which
produced scuffles and arrests, including that of an Indian American
CBS reporter who was charged with resisting arrest, came after days
of escalating political rhetoric and violent incidents at Trump
events.
Last week a Trump
supporter sucker-punched a black protester leaving an event with
security. An allegation of assault against a reporter by Trump’s
campaign manager is being investigated by Florida police.
Trump himself has
suggested in recent months that protesters at his events should be
“taken out on stretchers”, and said he would like to punch a
demonstrator in the face.
On Saturday, Trump
took to Twitter to say: “The organized group of people, many of
them thugs, who shut down our first amendment rights in Chicago, have
totally energized America!”
He also told a crowd
in Vandalia, Ohio, that his supporters in Chicago “were so nice”
and “caused no problem”. He instead blamed “these other
people”, naming Bernie Sanders supporters specifically, as the
culprits who “taunted” and “harrassed” his fans.
Trump’s Republican
rivals were quick to condemn his speech. On Saturday, Marco Rubio,
whose last presidential hopes rest with his home state, which also
votes on Tuesday, hedged on whether he would support Trump as the
Republican nominee.
Addressing reporters
ahead of a rally in Largo, Florida, the senator offered a blistering
critique of frontrunner’s incitement of violence.
“It’s called
chaos, anarchy and that’s what we’re careening toward,” Rubio
said. “We are being ripped apart at the seams now, and it’s
disturbing. I am sad for this country. This country is supposed to be
an example to the world.”
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Asked if he would
still support Trump if he were the party’s nominee, as he pledged
to do at a debate in Detroit a week ago, the senator responded: “I
don’t know. I intend to support the Republican nominee, but [it’s]
getting harder every day.”
Kasich also appeared
to waver on the question of backing Trump, according to reporters
with the governor in Sharonville, Ohio, on Saturday. “It makes it
extremely difficult,” he said, of the violence in Chicago.
On Friday night,
Cruz, Trump’s nearest rival for the nomination, accused the
billionaire developer of whipping up tensions.
“When you have a
campaign that is accused of physical violence against members of the
press,” the Texas senator said, “you create an environment that
only encourages this sort of nasty discord.”
The Trump rally in
Illinois was cancelled 30 minutes after it was scheduled to begin,
due to what an announcer called “security concerns” as protesters
mingled with Trump supporters in the hall.
The billionaire
claimed, in direct opposition to what Chicago police told reporters,
that law enforcement advised him to cancel the rally.
“Commander George
Devereux of the CPD was informed of everything before it happened,”
Trump said on Saturday. “Likewise, Secret Service and private
security firms were consulted and totally involved.”
The Trump campaign
later said the decision was taken “for the safety of all”, though
the Chicago police department said it had not advised the
postponement and would have been able to cope.
Trump later said he
thought it was a better idea to call off the rally than to “let
people mix it up”. “I didn’t want to see anybody get hurt,”
he said. “I think we made the right move.”
Clinton, the
Democratic frontrunner, called for calm. In a statement issued on
Saturday, she said: “Violence has no place in our politics. We
should use our words and deeds to bring Americans together.”
Clinton said
divisive rhetoric should be of “grave concern to us all”, before
tying events in Chicago to inflamed cultural and racial tensions
after the murder of nine people in a church in Charleston, South
Carolina, last June.
“All of us,” she
said, “no matter what party we belong to or what views we hold,
should say loudly and clearly that violence has no place in our
politics.”
Trump, however, said
he had no regrets bringing up contentious issues.
“You have so much
anger in the country. I mean it’s just anger in the country. I
don’t think it’s directed at me or anything,” he told CNN on
Friday.
Illegal immigration,
Trump said, “is an important subject and if I didn’t bring it up,
people wouldn’t even be talking about it. I’m proud I brought it
up.”
Trump also defended
his comments about taking out protesters “on stretchers”.
“These were rough,
tough guys and they did damage,” he said. “It happens, not often,
but it happens. When it happens I will talk about them, but mostly we
just have fun.”
Trump also suggested
that though images from the Chicago rally broadcast nationally could
lead to higher voter turnout at the polls in Illinois, Florida and
Ohio, he could not “even have a rally in a major city anymore”.
Outside the rally
venue in Chicago, violence flared as Trump supporters were cornered
in a parking garage. Inside the arena, punches were thrown amid
scuffles.
“We stopped
Trump,” some protesters chanted.
Such protesters were
“troublemakers” who should go “go home to mommy” or “go
home and get a job” because “they contribute nothing”, he said.
“They’re allowed
to get up and interrupt us horribly and we have to be very, very
gentle,” Trump said. “They can swing and hit people, but if we
hit them back, it’s a terrible, terrible thing, right?”
A demonstrator in
St.Louis, Missouri, explains to Donald Trump supporters why the term
‘all lives matter’ is dismissive to the black community.
It was not
immediately clear how the weekend’s controversy would affect
Tuesday’s voting. The sight of protesters throwing punches or
covered with blood, however, was a dramatic new departure that
Trump’s rivals were quick to suggest could turn more moderate
supporters against him.
News outlets ran a
picture of a St Louis protester’s blood-splattered face – and the
the New York Daily News, long a Trump foe, ran the headline: “Blood
on Don’s hands.”
Trump himself,
however, suggested on Fox News on Friday that protesters had robbed
him of his first amendment rights, and that the clashes would help
him in Illinois.
Using Twitter on
Saturday, he said: “On my way to Dayton, Ohio. Will be there soon!”
With the Associated
Press
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