Hundreds of protesters jostled with police in riot gear Friday outside a California hotel where Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was to give a speech, forcing the candidate to duck into a back entrance. In order to get to the venue, Trump had to make his way around a fence, step over a concrete embankment and find his way through one of the hotel’s back entrances.
Advertisement
At one point, several dozen protesters broke through barricades and attempted to storm the hotel where the California Republican Convention was taking place but police, some wielding batons, were able to push them back.
Outside of a Trump rally in Costa Mesa on Thursday, traffic was blocked, police cars vandalized, and 17 people were arrested.
About 20 people were arrested on Thursday night near the county fair grounds in Costa Mesa, California, where Trump held a rally.
Burlingame Police Lt. Jay Keily said the department had brought in officers from throughout San Mateo County to assist with today’s event.
When Trump started to speak, he joked, “I felt like I was crossing the border” after he said he climbed through and under a fence to enter the venue.
Protests that stayed mostly peaceful during the event grew in size and anger afterward. He has accused Mexico of sending drug dealers and rapists across the US border, and has promised to solve the problem by building a wall and forcing Mexico to pay for it.
The Republican presidential candidate compared his dramatic entrance to the speech he was giving in California to “crossing the border”.
Demonstrators smashed the window of a police squad auto, marched in protest and blocked traffic as police in riot gear tried to disperse the crowd in Costa Mesa.
“We came here because we want to use our American right of free speech to say Donald Trump’s hate is not going to make America great”.
As the protest raged outside, with a huge Mexican flag waving in the middle of the crowd, Trump sneaked in and attended a VIP reception, where he posed for photos with Republican donors next to the USA and California flags.
“I’m not against anybody, but I will be voting for Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican primary”, Pence said on an in radio show. Several Trump supporters said they were roughed up but no serious injuries were reported. One Trump supporter had his face bloodied in a scuffle as he tried to drive out of the arena.
The front-runner and his two rivals pitch their campaigns from the stage and in behind-the-scenes cajoling at the GOP convention outside San Francisco, with Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich appearing Friday and Texas Sen.
Hundreds of people protested outside a Donald Trump rally in California.
While Trump is now leading in recent polls of California Republican voters, the demonstrators made clear that their state was not friendly territory for him.
Trump remarked on his entrance when he began his speech just before 1 p.m., almost an hour late. Trump was not present.
Advertisement
In his speech at the convention, Trump predicted the primary season would soon come to a close and called for Republicans to come together, stressing, “there has to be unity in our party”.
