WASHINGTON (CNN) – A day after fights and protests forced Republican front-runner Donald Trump to cancel a Chicago rally, the Republican National Committee’s chairman released a statement calling for Americans to be respectful of each others’ views.
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At one moment during his speech, Secret Service agents quickly surrounded Trump.
The man, identified by authorities as Thomas DiMassimo, was charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic, according to People magazine. “I was ready for ’em, but it’s much better if the cops do it, don’t we agree?”
Trump says arrests would mar their records. My people want to do one thing: Make America great again.
Trump has called for protesters who disrupt his speeches and rallies to be arrested, saying he will press charges against them. While he asked his supporters not to hurt them, a visibly annoyed Trump also said he was “going to start pressing charges against all these people”. “I promise, I promise”, Trump said.
In Kansas City, Missouri, he repeatedly ridiculed them – as people with a “little weak voice” and saying “go home to mommy”.
The billionaire businessman warned that protesters would “ruin the rest of their lives” due to a “big arrest mark” that will remain.
Trump, who will be at a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday, cancelled the Chicago event on Friday after it turned chaotic, with scuffles breaking out between protesters and backers of the real estate magnate.
WHAT’S NEXT? Some of the Chicago organizers say they don’t plan to take part in any broader movement to dog the candidate elsewhere.
The shocking incident came after a Trump rally in Chicago on Friday descended into chaos with protesters brawling with supporters of the Republican hopeful.
He thinks protests like his may be having two reactions from Trump supporters: They either double down on their backing of Trump, or they begin to change their minds. On Twitter, Trump said the man who rushed the stage at his OH event had ties to the Islamic State, citing a video that experts said could not possibly be linked to the radical militant group.
Trump asserted Saturday that the Chicago protest was a professionally staged “planned attack”.
And Trump’s supporters complied.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters Saturday that he still meant to support the nominee, “but it’s getting harder every day”.
“And that toxic environment has allowed his supporters, and those who seek confrontation, to come together in violence”, he said. And you know what?
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It was the second time police used pepper spray at the Saturday night protests, which drew hundreds of people to line both sides of Main Street in front of the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland, where Trump spoke at 6 p.m.
