Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a distant third in the GOP delegate count, compared Trump to third-world “strong men”, and said the tone of the campaign “is really going to do damage to America”.
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Trump said arresting protesters would “ruin the rest of their lives” by giving them a “big arrest mark”.
Sanders, the 74-year-old Democratic Senator from Vermont, who is running his presidential campaign on the slogan of democratic socialism, was quick to fire back.
“A candidate for president of the United States should condemn violence, not encourage violence”, the Democratic White House hopeful said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio.
Trump was eager to engage them.
Ugly confrontations have continued with Trump blaming organised thugs for the violence.
Trump told NBC that he is looking at paying the legal fees of the North Carolina puncher who was later arrested by police: “I’ve actually instructed my people to look into it, yes”.
After a recent rally in Kentucky was interrupted by a protestor Trump told the audience to “get him out ” , adding: “Try not to hurt him – if you do, I’ll defend you in court”. “I don’t know if I would have done well but I would have been out there fighting, folks”. “Bernie’s crowd. They’re Bernie’s crowd”. Fighting broke out between supporters and protestors, with clashes both inside and outside the venue.
His public appearance in Kansas followed a campaign rally in OH where protesters unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the event with shouts.
“We are going to take our country back from these people”.
Mr Trump’s staff denied earlier suggestions the event would be cancelled due to security concerns.
The Sanders campaign said there was no evidence any Sanders campaign staff was involved in organizing the protests, and Sanders did not apologize on Saturday for the unrest.
Trump’s reaction was characteristically one of contempt. Sanders said on CNN that Trump “is a man who keeps implying violence, and then you end up getting what you see”.
He said that he does not spur his supporters to violence against protesters, arguing that despite “rallies of 25,000, 30,000 people, we haven’t even said anything about danger in our rallies”.
On a drizzly Sunday morning, thousands of supporters and protesters squeezed into the Synergy Flight Center’s largest aircraft hanger for a glimpse of the current republican presidential front-runner.
“They want me to tell my people please be nice be nice”.
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Trump will now continue on to OH and other states, ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections.
