Man Tries To Breach Security, Rush Stage At Trump Rally In Ohio
CINCINNATI, Ohio (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Secret Service agents formed a circle around Donald Trump as a man tried to rush the stage at a rally in Ohio Saturday.
A spokeswoman for Trump said a man tried to breach the security buffer at his event in Ohio, leading U.S. Secret Service agents to briefly rush the stage to surround the Republican presidential candidate.
Later that evening, police say they used pepper spray twice outside a Trump rally in Kansas City, Missouri, and two people were arrested for refusing to follow the law.
Trump was forced to cancel an event Friday after fights broke out between his supporters and protesters in Chicago. The chaos spilled onto the streets where police made several arrests, including CBS journalist Sopan Deb, TV 10/55's Brook Silva-Braga reported.
The billionaire businessman addressed the incident at the start of his rally, calling what took place at the University of Illinois at Chicago "a disgrace, if you want to know the truth.''
Trump says his supporters are "nice'' and "great'' people, but protesters he called "professionally-staged wise guys'' were determined to cause problems. He says he was worried his backers would have gotten hurt.
Trump says, "we would've had a problem like you wouldn't have believed.''
He added: "We made a decision. And I hated to do this, because frankly it wouldn't have been easier to do. But I didn't want to see anybody get hurt. You would have had a problem like they haven't seen in a long time. Because we have people that are so amazing... They want me to tell my people please be nice, my people were nice."
Instead, he blamed Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' supporters for instigating the violence.
"What our supporters are doing, is responding to a candidate who has in fact in many ways, encouraged violence," Trump said.
The protest at the UIC Pavilion west of downtown Chicago began with chanting, but soon turned physical with Trump supporters and opponents going at each other and fists flying. Protesters had ascended upon the campaign rally from the nearby University of Illinois at Chicago campus.
The announcement that the rally would be canceled came in around 6:30 p.m. Central Time — around half an hour after Trump had been expected to take the stage and with thousands of Trump supporters filling the space, CBS Chicago reported.
Coverage From CBS Chicago – Dana Kozlov Reports:
Trump's GOP rivals criticized the protesters, but also faulted the billionaire.
"Donald Trump has created a toxic environment," Kasich said.
"I still at this moment intend to support the Republican nominee, but it's getting harder every day," Rubio said.
"Responsibility starts and ends at the top," Cruz said.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also had some words about Trump, saying his heated language is inciting violent outbursts at his rallies, and it's up to the billionaire businessman to stop it.
Sanders said what the "Trump campaign has been about is insulting Mexicans in a very crude way'' and "insulting African-Americans.''
Mayor de Blasio also weighed in on the candidate saying on Twitter, "I didn't realize this was in question. Behaves like a racist, speaks like a racist…of course @RealDonaldTrump is a racist."
De Blasio was responding to a tweet from musician John Legend, who also called Trump a racist.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
