US Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders has hit back after Republican front-runner Donald Trump said he had sent protesters to disrupt his rallies.
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“What our supporters are doing is responding to a candidate who has in fact, in many ways, encouraged violence”, Bernie said.
“You had professional disruptors, thousands of them, from Sanders and to a smaller extent, Hillary (Clinton)”, he said of a Friday night event in Chicago that Trump canceled after chaos broke out there.
“[Sanders] should really get up and say to his people, ‘stop, ‘” he said.
“Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organise the protests”.
“To suggest that our campaign is telling people to disrupt his campaign is a lie. We are law abiding people”, he said. “But it was not our campaign”.
Trump, for his part, has denied that he condones any violence at his rallies.
“This a man who keeps implying violence, and then you end up getting what you see”, Sanders said.
The clashes between protesters and his supporters, which Trump called “disgraceful”, led to five arrests and two police officers being injured.
CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli reports the protests is set for 10 a.m. on Monday at Trump Tower.
Trump wasted no time addressing Friday’s cancellation, saying that his supporters “caused no problem” at his rally, instead saying supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz echoed Rubio’s concerns, adding that he was troubled by the billionaire businessman’s rallies. All three have condemned the violence at Trump’s rallies, but they also are not excusing the protesters. And she says Trump “doesn’t stand with that”.
The frontrunner for the US Republican nomination yesterday cancelled his rally in Dayton, Ohio after various security fears and counter-protests forced the Secret Service to do so.
It was not immediately clear why the agents rushed the stage to surround Trump, who appeared to jolt after hearing something coming from the audience behind him.
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Speaking in Kansas City on Sunday, the property magnate said: “I was ready”.
