Trump rally sparks extraordinary stretch in Republican race
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters wait for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Wright Brothers Aero Hangar for a campaign rally Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
People are seen on the ground after a man tried to breach the security buffer, according to a spokeswoman for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, during a campaign rally with Trump at the Wright Brothers Aero Hangar on Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Secret Service and the Cleveland Police keep a close watch as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the I-X Center on Saturday in Cleveland.
CLEVELAND » In a Republican presidential primary filled with extraordinary moments, a 24-hour stretch that began Friday night stands above them all.
Opponents of Donald Trump were so committed to keeping him from speaking in Chicago that they aggressively clashed with supporters, forcing the GOP front-runner to abruptly cancel his rally before it even began.
The next morning, two of the candidates still fighting to defeat Trump, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said they were so disgusted by the chaos that they may not support the billionaire businessman if he clinches their party’s nomination.
And when Trump appeared at another rally Saturday morning in Ohio, he was suddenly pulled midspeech into a protective ring of U.S. Secret Service agents charged with guarding his life after a man rushed the stage.
“Thank you for the warning,” Trump told the crowd after he resumed his speech. “I was ready for ‘em, but it’s much better if the cops do it, don’t we agree?”
Each moment has virtually no precedent in modern presidential politics. Taken together, they exposed anew the remarkable anxiety ripping through a country dealing with profound economic and demographic changes, as well as the anger roiling inside one of America’s great political parties.
For those cringing at the discord and Trump’s unanticipated political rise, there were no easy answers Saturday.
While not mentioning Trump by name, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement Saturday that political leaders in both parties have a responsibility to ensure that the “discourse we engage in promotes the best of America.”
“While we have differences, the exercise of our right to free speech should be just that: speech,” Priebus said. “Violence is never the answer. Violence only begets violence.”
Republican traditionalists kept whispering in private conversations about long-shot options for stopping Trump, either at a contested convention or by rallying around a potential third-party option. Trump, meanwhile, could put the Republican nomination out of reach to others in Tuesday’s slate of five delegate-rich primaries.
Trump’s rivals have spent months tiptoeing around his provocative comments for fear of alienating his impassioned supporters. Even in Thursday night’s debate, all three of his remaining rivals — Rubio, Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — sidestepped a question about whether outbursts of violence at Trump’s rallies and his statements encouraging supporters to aggressively take on protesters concerned them.
But the images spilling out of Chicago, with young people angrily confronting each other, often divided by racial lines, appeared to be too much.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Rubio said he may not be able to support Trump if he’s the GOP nominee, citing the way he’s “dividing both the party and the country so bitterly.”
The Florida senator, who won the party’s caucuses in Washington D.C. on Saturday, wouldn’t say whether he’d look for a third-party candidate to support if Trump does become the Republican standard-bearer. He added, “The fact that you even have to ask me the question shows why (Trump) is a problem.”
Kasich, who has largely avoided tangling with Trump until now, said the real estate mogul has created a “toxic environment” that makes it “extremely difficult” to envision supporting him as the Republican nominee.
“To see Americans slugging themselves at a political rally deeply disturbed me,” Kasich said while campaigning in Cincinnati. “We’re better than that.”
Only Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is closest to Trump in the delegate count, said he would unequivocally support the businessman if he emerges from the primary victorious. Still, Cruz — eager for Rubio and Kasich to get out of the race after their home-state primaries on Tuesday so he can take Trump on in a head-to-head contest — blamed his rival for encouraging the kind of “nasty violence” that occurred in Chicago.
President Barack Obama, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Dallas, said those who aspire to lead the country “should be trying to bring us together and not turning us against one another,” and he urged leaders to “speak out against violence.”
“If they refuse to do that, they don’t deserve our support,” he said.
With his delegate lead mounting, there’s little evidence that Trump sees any reason to alter an approach that includes encouraging his supporters to aggressively — and sometimes physically — stop protesters from interrupting his raucous rallies.
Instead, Trump said at a rally Saturday afternoon in Cleveland, which was also interrupted several times by dozens of protesters, that he thought all the disruptions would help him.
“It just makes all of our friends and supporters more angry. We’re going to go to the polls on Tuesday,” he said, predicting a “resounding victory.”
Nor did Trump moderate elsewhere. On Twitter, Trump said the man who rushed the stage at his Ohio event had ties to the Islamic State, citing a video that experts said could not possibly be linked to the radical militant group.
He also alleged online that Rubio and his Republican allies in Florida were trying to “rig the vote” in the Florida senator’s favor and that he’d asked law enforcement to investigate. Florida elections officials said they had not heard of any such problems and had received no formal complaints.
Indeed, Trump appeared eager to paint himself as the victim of the extraordinary events. He complained the well-organized protesters in Chicago intent on keeping him from speaking had violated his First Amendment rights, and questioned why no one was asking Bernie Sanders to defend the actions of his backers.
Several of the protesters in Chicago said they are supporters of the Democratic candidate.
“They’re Bernie fans!” Trump said in Cleveland. “Hey, Bernie, get your people in line, Bernie!”
___
Beaumont reported from Cleveland. Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Vandalia, Ohio, Kathleen Ronayne in Sharonville, Ohio, Tamara Lush in Tampa, Florida, Darlene Superville in Dallas, and Vivian Salama in Washington contributed to this report.
56 responses to “Trump rally sparks extraordinary stretch in Republican race”
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If anyone will not support Trump then go play gin rummy.
Or Payute
Or Pinochle
Or Texas Hold ’em
Or https://web.adblade.com/clicks.php?appId=12658&zid=569fec1f41d3c&adId=275866&pos=3&impt=1457802071&zoneId=930&algid=4&csig=1599843364596657401&reqid=54daf19333da6048&ord=1457802071&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.staradvertiser.com%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-rivals-questioning-whether-theyd-back-trump-as-nominee%2F%23comment-70177
What?
It’s a secret.
Meaning?
That on January 20, 2017, Bubba will again be attending an inaugural ball.
Or themselves.
Buddy, would you like me to teach you how to insert an html3 link in a post so your link doesn’t run off the page?
Sad there is no one else in the republican party to support. I mean come on. A Canadian? So much for the constitution right republicans. Its ok if you are republican. Fact is Ted is not a settled matter and won’t be until the SC rules on it.
Peter, It must keep you awake at night thinking about Senator Ted Cruz, the American of American-Cuban ancestry born in Canada, becoming the President of the United States provided the power and authority under the U.S. Constitution to nominate Supreme Court Justices and fill vacancies of all Federal Courts throughout the Country. For me, I do sleep well thinking about it.
To think ted Cruz the first Cuban Anchor baby to be president. Now this is something you republicans can be proud of. lol Fortunately It won’t happen.
Only a fool would think Cruz has any chance at all in a general election. He’s just too far right, just as Bernie is too far left. Trump is the only Republican in a position to challenge Clinton.
It is however ironic that the 2 repub candidates leading in the polls are the 2 your party just won’t support. I think the voters are sending your party leadership a message, and they’re not receiving it.
Cruz cannot win the general election. Zero percent chance of success. That’s assuming, of course, that his foreign-born status doesn’t bar him from serving. Zero percent chance.
Better than playing Russian roulette like his supporters.
Amazing how STUPID a lot of the youth is today. This is AMERICA remember ? Trump has every right to hold a rally ANYWHERE he wants. Watching the news with all those median flags protesting an AMERICAN ? WTH is wrong with our country.
TRUMP 2016 – the ONLY person who can fix this messed up country !
The school in Chicago has a high immigrant population that could be adversely affected by a Trump presidency. My guess is most of those Chicago University protesters can’t even vote. The last thing they want is to go back home. They want what americans have, can you blame them?
The NY Times reported that it “compared hundreds of demographic and economic variables from census data, along with results from past elections, with this year’s results in the 23 states that have held primaries and caucuses. We examined what factors predict a high level of Trump support relative to the total number of registered voters…In the places where support for Mr. Trump runs the strongest, the proportion of the white population that didn’t finish high school is relatively high. So is the proportion of working-age adults who neither have a job nor are looking for one. The third-strongest correlation among hundreds of variables tested: the preponderance of mobile homes. Trump territory showed stronger support for the segregationist George Wallace in the 1968 election than the rest of the country”
The NY Times as with most of the media are anti-GOP rags. Pity if the U.S. becomes a one party system. We have seen what that does in Hawaii.
In the populations where Clinton support is high crime rate, welfare dependence and not finishing high school is much higher.
Has the NYT noted that that most of these folks are first time voters? They still don’t get it as Trump rolls on.
Allaha, you are wrong. Nine of the top 12 states in unemployment rates are Red (Republican) states. “New state unemployment statistics revealed that the fastest way to sink an economy is to vote for Republican candidates. To the surprise of no one, cutting taxes for those at the top in these states has not resulted in the magic job creator fairy raining jobs down from the skies on to the hard working people below. Republican economic policies do not create jobs. The country is watching the Republican presidential candidates promise to use the same policies that are failing at the state level if they get into the White House.” There is ONE bright, shiny aspect of Republican led states: “The one thing that the Republican states on the list all have in common is that they have implemented the conservative economic policy of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.” Great for rich people! http://www.politicususa.com/2015/11/20/proof-gop-failure-9-12-states-highest-unemployment-run-republicans.html
Those that have been in control of the political process and who have ‘decided’ who has gone on to occupy the WH were not likely to let the occupant decide who gets appointed to the highest level positions like head of the Fed, Sec of State, Treasury Sec, or the Supreme Court.
You only need to look which group of the population votes over 90% for Clinton. I do not dare to mention it by name because of censorship, but the media are allowed to.
BS, and those supporters of Trump are Union members that normally vote Democrat.
You are right and facts are facts.
BD – Strange that those folks would support Trump, Bernie sounds more like the president they need.
What happened to that “Purity” pledge all the GOP candidates took? What liars.
And why all the Trump blame on the Chicago incident? Twitter shows The Bern’s people actively telling supports to go and cause problems. Just like 0bama’s MoveOn.org. And everyone knows the BLM people always listen to what Trump says.
More like selling their souls to Trump. Seems like these politicians will say anything to get elected. If they don’t stand by their words, then they shouldn’t have pledged it in the first place. They keep calling the other candidates liars, but they need to look in the mirrors first instead to see the real liars.
Who took the purity pledge being pushed by conservatives?
Sigh, do we really need a president?
That’s like saying “do we need a government and country?” We can go back to a monarchy or dictatorship, but I bet a lot of us would not be too happy if that happened.
My point is, a number of municipalities have done away with the figure head office of Mayor and run much more efficiently with just a city council. I think the country should take the same approach.
You will never get a group of people to agree, especially when it comes to war, no thank you keep the president!
Last I looked, congress was broken, divided and full of partisan politics.
Our system of government requires consensus, bipartisan cooperation and compromise to function efficiently, something we’re sorely lacking. probably more so than at any other time in history.
Not like the current one.
Yes we do. Better to have a President with term limits, than a royal family that earns billions of dollars a year, and are primarily figure heads of government than actual do-somethings, but remain the head of a country for whatever reason.
No, the GOP insiders including the other candidates are creating a toxic environment. I will refuse to vote for any of thge other candidates. The GOP is imploding as incumbents try to protect their jobs or should I say government ripoffs.
Any normal man feels like what Trump said – whack the thugs who deny his right to speech and act horribly. Every man feels it is to bad thugs have to be treatednice and cannot be roughed up and bootet out of his rallyes
Take your meds and calm down so you can at least type correctly.
Your right. I read Allaha’s post 3 times and still had a hard time figuring out what he said.
You’re right. I had shoulder surgery and can only type with one hand.
In Hawaii none of these protesters would go home unharmed if they tied to crash and disturb a peaceful party.
No one denied Trump free speech. He could’ve followed through and given a speech. He chose not to. But, he definitely was not denied his freedom of speech. He left the building.
Do you know how Small these guys are going to look, if they don’t endorse Trump,should he become the nominee? After signing pledges to support the GOP’s nomination?They all agreed! Why whine about it now? Maybe then,they thought that Trump was just…..a Flash in the Pan?
If they don’t endorse the nominee, no matter who the nominee will be, then it only goes to show they don’t play well with others. They need to retire or be retired.
Maybe it would show integrity, since Trump has none.
“To see Americans slugging themselves at a political rally deeply disturbed me,” Kasich said…
Slugging themselves?
Well, if there’s anyone lolo enough to slug themselves, it’d be Drumpf supporters.
Drumpf supporters would probably do that but not Mr Trump supporters. TRUMP2016
Drumpf.. Trump… they’re all the same. Self-sluggers.
Really is becoming a kindergarten playground. It’s my belief that folks are starting to see the Donald for what he really is – and having second thoughts. His rallies bring out the worst on both sides, fueled by Trump’s inflamatory speeches. What initially seemed amusing, brash and entertaining is turning into class and racial violence, not helped by his rhetoric. It’s getting harder and harder to see him as a future GOP nominee, let alone president. He appeals mainly to the insecure, disenfranchised voters worried about their jobs and future. May be wrong but I think the Donald has seen his best days and it’s downhill from here.
Should the country go Trump it will hopefully put into motion future events that may have the benefit of further purging the system from it’s current ills. If nothing else Trump is forcing the elites and One Worlders to come out from the closet and expose themselves for what and who they are.
Please don’t expose yourself as your small hands already indicate your physical and mental deficiencies.
Actually, K-1 playgrounds are pretty nice places where kids learn social skills unlike the new standard for the American electoral process.
TRUMPEDED! Hahahah…god for the GOP and McConnell, a real idiot and now Trump’s new lapdog. Arf, Arf!