Donald Trump greets protesters at Kansas City, Mo., rally

Donald Trump said Saturday night that the man who rushed the stage as he spoke earlier at an Ohio rally was probably “ISIS related� (using an acronym for Islamic State), but offered no evidence for the accusation.

At a raucous rally in Kansas City, Trump told supporters that he would have fought the man if Secret Service agents had not tackled him in a high-drama clash on stage at Trump’s morning rally in Dayton.

The Republican presidential front-runner criticized an unnamed judge for releasing the suspect, identified by the Dayton Daily News as Thomas Dimassimo, 22, of Fairborn, Ohio.

“This guy should be in jail right now,� said Trump, who had grabbed his lectern and ducked when the man leaped over a barricade and dashed to within a few feet of the candidate.

Trump’s remarks came at a Kansas City rally marred by scores of protesters who left the candidate hollering “get ‘em out� over and over for long stretches.

He threatened to start pressing charges against hecklers who disrupt virtually all of his rallies.

“You can arrest her,� he said of one protester. “Arrest her. Arrest her. Arrest her.�

Outside the rally, police arrested four protesters and pepper-sprayed others.

Trump’s allegation of Islamic State ties to his morning attacker appeared to be based on an altered Internet video that the New York billionaire spread on Twitter.

The original video showed a man who appeared to be Dimassimo participating in an anti-racism protest at Wright State University in Dayton.

The YouTube video that Trump posted on Twitter is an altered version with Middle Eastern music added as a soundtrack. Who made that version and whether the people in it had any knowledge of it are unknown.

“It was probably ISIS or ISIS related, do you believe it?� Trump told the crowd in Kansas City.

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As Marco Rubio fights in Florida to keep his own presidential aspirations alive, he’s pitching to supporters that something else is at stake in next Tuesday’s primary: the conservative movement.

“I won’t beat around the bush here. If Donald Trump is our nominee, we’re going to lose,� Rubio told a crowd of a several hundred people in Pensacola on Saturday evening. “And by the way, if Donald Trump is our nominee, he will define conservatism for a generation.�

Hours after a morose Rubio said it was “getting harder every day� to pledge to support Trump if he were the GOP nominee, the Florida senator swiped at the front-runner for “going to Americans who are angry and who are frustrated and is telling them to get angrier and more frustrated.�

“That is not conservatism,� he added.

Though Rubio did not explicitly mention the melees at recent Trump rallies, he warned that U.S. political discourse should not become people who are “screaming, angry, calling each other names -- that’s what they do in third-world countries.�

The Trump rally brawls were not just subtext in Rubio’s remarks; many in the crowd said they were aware of the unrest at the GOP front-runner’s events in Chicago and elsewhere.

“It’s a shame that people can’t get along,� said Anne Haasnoot, a legal secretary from Pensacola.

Haasnoot said the Tuesday primary was “the most important one� for Rubio, and other attendees agreed.

“This is maybe the last stop,� said Cathy Paulsen, a Pensacola real-estate agent. “This is it. If he doesn’t break through here and finally win one, it’s not going to happen.�

But she said a loss on Tuesday, while decisive for Rubio’s presidential ambitions this year, wouldn’t permanently dampen his career.

“He’s a rising star,� Paulsen said. “He’ll still do some great things, hopefully.�

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz added to his delegate total on Saturday, grabbing a majority of delegates in Wyoming’s GOP county conventions, one of a handful of contests being held this weekend.

Cruz won nine of the 12 delegates that were up for grabs, according to the state party. Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio each won a single delegate in Wyoming, while one delegate was uncommitted. Next month another 14 of the Wyoming’s delegates will be awarded at the statewide convention.

On Saturday, Cruz also picked up a delegate in Guam, while, according to CNN and the Associated Press, the island’s remaining five delegates remained uncommitted.

Cruz is the lone candidate in the GOP field who has won several contests over Trump. Republican delegates in Washington, D.C., are also set to be awarded late Saturday evening.

Lawyers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday contested an Orange County woman’s request to withdraw from a lawsuit she filed against Trump University, saying the entire case was built around her and it would be unfair to the defense for her to bail out now.

“We’ve passed the point of no return,� attorney Daniel Petrocelli told U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego.

Tarla Makaeff — one of four class representatives bringing the case against Trump’s real estate instruction program — had asked to be removed from the lawsuit, citing stress and health problems caused by the closely watched case.

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Sen. Marco Rubio is making a last stand in Florida that is as much about reigniting his once-hopeful presidential campaign as burnishing his own legacy after romping in the gutter with Donald Trump

Acknowledging he is the underdog now in his home state, Rubio was downcast Saturday as he took stock of the fractured condition of the GOP -- and his role in the messy fissure.

The violence that has erupted at Trump’s rallies left him doubting his own resolve when asked what has become the defining question for Republican leaders in the Trump era: Yes, he would still back the billionaire if he ended up the party’s nominee.

“Getting harder every day,� Rubio sighed at an early morning campaign stop in the Tampa suburb of Largo. “I’m sad for this country.�

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(Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

When black, Muslim and Latino student activists at the University of Illinois at Chicago heard last week that Donald Trump was planning a rally on campus, they did what any good organizers do in 2016: They went online.

Within days, thousands of people had liked a Facebook page called “Stop Trump – Chicago.� Tens of thousands added their names to a MoveOn.org petition calling on the school to cancel the rally.

They all had one thing in common, said Casandra Robledo, a second-year student who helped organize the protest: “We felt so strongly that Donald Trump and his bigotry and racism wasn’t welcome here.�

The students’ large demonstration at Trump’s rally Friday night led the Republican presidential candidate to abruptly cancel his planned appearance and sparked a melee between Trump supporters and protesters that resulted in multiple injuries and arrests.

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A day after fistfights and shoving broke out at his planned event in Chicago, Donald Trump on Saturday blamed the violence on opponents who “taunted� and harassed his supporters, and he continued to pledge that he would unify the country.

The events of the night before had conjured a horrible flashback to the 1960s, when police and protesters fought in the streets of the same city during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Thousands who had gathered for his appearance began scuffling after it was canceled, and then some continued the conflict outside.

Nothing about it was surprising: A flammable brew of populist anger, campaign mismanagement, a candidate’s own provocative encouragement and disruptive protesters finally found its fuse. The explosion was predictable, given tensions in the country around its changing demographic face and economic displacement that has left many fearful and upset and receptive audiences for Trump’s surprisingly strong candidacy.

In his first appearance Saturday outside Dayton, Ohio, Trump said the Friday problems arose when “all of a sudden a planned attack just came out of nowhere.�

“My people are nice … they caused no problem,� he said. “They were taunted, they were harassed by these other people.�

He repeated that message in Cleveland, where a raucous crowd greeted him and booed scattered groups of protesters.

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As the interactive portion of the annual confab gets going in Austin, Texas, there has been plenty of anti-Donald Trump material on display.

Trying to wrench his campaign back to its version of normality after protests in Chicago forced cancellation of a rally there, Donald Trump went back to his usual pitch to Cleveland-area voters, one that was only occasionally drowned out by protesters and cries of support from Trump’s fans.

Inside a cavernous, airplane-hangar-style building near Cleveland’s airport, Trump ran through his routine list of promises: to build a wall on the southern border, punish firms trying to move out of the country, to return education to local officials and draw up beneficial trade deals.

But first, he predicted that the chaotic events Friday night would help him politically.

“Yesterday in Chicago, we had a little bit of a problem,� he said. “We were not allowed to exercise our 1st Amendment rights.�

He blamed the protests on “a professional organization� and called the cancellation of his Chicago event “a terrible situation.�

But, he added, “it just makes all of our friends and supporters more angry and we’re going to go to the polls on Tuesday and it’ll be a resounding victory.�

The crowd roared, as they did several times when small groups of protesters tried to interrupt Trump.

Trump cast his campaign as a cause driven by the thousands in the hall, and the more than a million voters who have cast ballots for him.

“It’s not me, it’s you,� he said. “I’m a messenger. People are fed up with what’s going on, fed up with stupidity in Washington.�

As he does at every event, he scored American trade deals as “stupid� and said that he alone, among the candidates, would stand up for workers.

He took particular aim at Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Trump’s biggest competitor in Tuesday’s primary here. He pointed out that Kasich had voted as a congressman for the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal much reviled in the industrial Midwest for taking away U.S. manufacturing jobs.

He criticized Kasich’s support for a path to legal status for those in the country illegally, and lanced him for his past work for at the Lehman Bros. investment firm. He said Kasich had abandoned the state for long periods while seeking the presidency.

“Your governor let the coal industry down,� he said. “Your steel industry is going to hell .… We’re bringing it all back. All these things are coming back, folks.�

When he was interrupted by protesters, Trump invariably described them as “Bernie people� — meaning loyal to Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

“Oh, boy, wouldn’t it be fun to meet Bernie in the finals?� he said at one point, referring to the November election.

Then, he added, “Get ‘em the hell out.�

He spared no praise for Sanders’ rival, Hillary Clinton, suggesting that her supporters were too uninterested to protest. He also noted that he had heard that after the Chicago troubles that Clinton had said Trump needed to “speak to his people so they’re nonviolent.�

“My people aren’t violent,� he said. “My people want to do one thing: Make America great again.�

With international trade a persistent fault line in the presidential election, Hillary Clinton is announcing a new proposal to strengthen protections for U.S. car manufacturers.

The proposal involves what Clinton calls weak “rules of origin,� which set standards for where products need to be made in order to qualify for lower tariffs under trade agreements.

Under the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, only 45% of a car would need to be produced inside countries that signed the agreement to qualify for inclusion, a level that Clinton believes is too low and opens the door to unfair competition with cheap materials from China.

She plans to announce her proposal at a campaign stop in Youngstown, Ohio.

Her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, has repeatedly criticized Clinton for supporting trade policies that he says have cost manufacturing jobs.

After narrowly winning this week’s primary in Michigan, Sanders is hoping the message works again for him in Midwestern states like Ohio and Illinois on Tuesday.

New video posted online shows a clearer view of the man who jumped a barrier at a Donald Trump campaign rally and tried to rush the stage where the Republican front-runner was speaking Saturday morning in Vandalia, Ohio.

Trump appeared rattled, spinning around to watch Secret Service agents swarm the man and stop his charge.

The man was led out of the event and Trump gave the cheering crowd a thumbs up.

“I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it,� Trump said.

The encounter came in Trump’s first campaign appearance after massive protests led him to cancel a rally Friday in Chicago.

In a sharply worded statement, Bernie Sanders denied accusations from Donald Trump that Sanders’ campaign was involved in organizing protesters who showed up en masse at a Trump rally in Chicago on Friday night.

“As is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar,� Sanders said of Trump’s claim on Twitter that it was “Clinton and Sanders people� who disrupted his rally.

“Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests,� Sanders said.

According to protesters who were at the event, the demonstration was largely organized by student activists at the University of Illinois at Chicago, whose campus was the site of the arena where Trump was slated to speak Friday night.

But the campus activists were also joined by protesters from other local and national groups, including Black Lives Matter and MoveOn.Org, a group that has endorsed Sanders and printed signs and a banner for the protest.

Nick Berning, communications director at MoveOn.Org, said his group sent an email blast to its members in Chicago, asking them to join the protest.

But while many of MoveOn members back Sanders, the group did not work directly with the campaign, Berning said.

In his statement, Sanders said Trump himself was to blame for the demonstration.

“What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama,� he said.

“What caused the violence at Trump’s rally is a campaign whose words and actions have encouraged it on the part of his supporters,� Sanders said. “When that is what the Trump campaign is doing, we should not be surprised that there is a response.�

(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz won a small number of delegates on Saturday in presidential nominating contests in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.

Clinton, the front-runner to be the Democratic nominee, nabbed four delegates with her win in the Northern Mariana Islands’ first-ever Democratic-caucuses, while Bernie Sanders earned two delegates, according to the local party. Republicans did not hold contests in the Pacific Ocean territory.

Meanwhile, Cruz picked up a delegate in Guam, while, according to CNN and the Associated Press, the remaining five delegates are uncommitted. Democrats will hold their contest in Guam in May.

Cruz is the lone candidate in the GOP field who has won several contests over Trump.

Republican delegates in Washington, D.C., were also to be doled out later Saturday.

Now it’s Donald Trump vs. the Chicago Police Department.

At a rally Saturday outside Dayton, Ohio, Trump said he canceled a Friday night event in the Windy City after consulting with law enforcement at several levels who expressed concern about “really bad, bad vibes.�

“I hated to do this because, frankly, it would have been easier to go,� Trump told the Ohio audience. “But I didn’t want to see anybody get hurt. You could’ve had a problem like they haven’t seen in a long time.�

His statement seemed to contradict what the Chicago police said the night before. “We were confident we had the proper amount of resources dedicated to the event,� interim Supt. of Police John Escalante said at a Friday night news conference.

After widely circulated reports calling into question Trump’s remarks Saturday, he issued a statement.

“Commander George Devereux of the [Chicago Police Department] was informed of everything before it happened,� Trump said, without elaborating. “Likewise, Secret Service and private security firms were consulted and totally involved.�

He further stated, incorrectly, that “nobody was injured and crowds disbanded quickly and peacefully. It has been termed ‘really good management and leadership under great pressure.’�

He did not say by whom.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio condemned Donald Trump on Saturday for contributing to the “frightening, grotesque and disturbing� climate of violence on display Friday in Chicago, saying the nation was being “ripped apart� along racial and class lines.

“I’m sad for this country,� Rubio told reporters in Largo, Fla. “This is supposed to be the example to the world of how a republic functions, and instead people are watching Third World images last night coming out of Chicago.�

Rubio faulted Trump for joking at a January rally with Sarah Palin in Iowa that he would pay the legal fees of any supporter who would “knock the crap out of� any protester who hurled a tomato at him. The violence that erupted in Chicago on Friday night, Rubio argued, is the result in part of Trump’s “dangerous� leadership style.

“You saw those images last night of people getting in their face, often divided up along racial lines in many cases,� Rubio said of the Trump rally in Chicago that was canceled Friday after clashes between protesters and Trump supporters.

“The police officers bleeding from the head, reminiscent of images from the ‘60s. I mean, we’re going backwards here. This is a frightening, grotesque and disturbing development in American politics.�

Rubio, who after a string of losses is struggling to remain a viable contender for the Republican presidential nomination, faulted the media, too.

“Every time Donald Trump offends someone, says something ridiculous, says something offensive, it’s wall-to-wall coverage and it’s only elevated him even more,� he said.

The protesters also share blame, he said.

“Chicago is a city that is teeming with paid protesters, and you don’t have a right to say I don’t like what someone is doing so I’m going to blow up their event,� he said.

But most of all, he assailed Trump, calling on the New York billionaire to forcefully condemn a white supporter who was seen on video punching a black protester in the face and threatening later to kill him at a Trump rally this week in North Carolina.

“This boiling point that we have now reached has been fed largely by the fact that we have a front-runner in my party who has fed into language that basically justifies physically assaulting people who disagree with you,� Rubio said.

America’s political process is careening toward anarchy, he argued.

“Forget about the election for a moment,� Rubio said. “There’s a broader issue in our political culture in this country and this is what happens when a leading presidential candidate goes around feeding into a narrative of anger and bitterness and frustration.�

There were catcalls and protesters interrupting the speaker. People shouted, “Stop the hate!� and one man tried to jump on stage.

It was, in short, a typically rowdy Donald Trump appearance.

But his first rally after a riotous Chicago crowd forced the cancellation of a Friday night stop, an hour-long visit Saturday to an airplane hangar outside Dayton, Ohio, witnessed none of the raw confrontation nor violence that marred the prior event.

There was a moment of drama when Secret Service agents swarmed around Trump after a man hurdled a barrier and attempted to take the stage. He was swiftly detained and a flustered Trump soon regained his composure.

“I was ready for him, but it’s much easier when the cops do the job, don’t we agree?� Trump said to the cheering crowd of about 2,000.

The Republican hopeful was interrupted several more times when demonstrators popped up throughout the audience. They were quickly escorted away—one pushing a walker—as the crowd took up the chant, “Trump! Trump! “ and “USA! USA!�

Trump blamed organized protesters for disrupting his Chicago rally—“people who truly don’t want to see our country be great again�—and said he reluctantly canceled his appearance to preserve the peace. “My people are nice,� Trump said. “They’re nice. … My people are great.�

When the inevitable protests arose in Dayton, Trump responded with a characteristic mix of bravado and sarcasm.

“Get him out of here!� he directed security officers.

“Go back home to mommy!� he sneered, as one demonstrator was cleared from the hangar. “Lock him in his bedroom!�

The crowd roared its approval.

“By the way, “ Trump said a few moments later. “Is there anything more fun than a Trump rally?�

The crowd roared again.

(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)

Democrats offered strong condemnation of Donald Trump on Saturday, pointing to his caustic rhetoric as the igniter of unrest between his supporters and detractors.

Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said at a campaign appearance in St. Louis on Saturday that Trump’s “divisive rhetoric ... is wrong and it’s dangerous.�

“If you play with matches, you’re going to start a fire you can’t control. That’s not leadership,� she said. “That’s political arson. The test of leadership and citizenship is the opposite. If you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence, condemn it. And if you see a bully, stand up to him.�

On Friday, Trump canceled a planned rally at the University of Illinois-Chicago as protesters and his supporters confronted one another on the streets and inside the arena where the event was to be held. The fracas was the culmination of months of tensions between Trump supporters and smaller groups of protesters at his rallies, where Trump has urged his backers to defend themselves and said he even wanted to punch protesters himself.

Clinton was joined on Saturday by the Democratic National Committee in condemning Trump, who hit the campaign trail with scheduled stops in Ohio and Missouri.

“Time and again, we’ve watched the Republican front-runner rile up his supporters with calls to violence, sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit, usually directed at minorities and always unpresidential,� DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Saturday. “The Republican Party set the stage for Trump’s divisive campaign.�

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders attended events in Chicago and on Twitter insisted his campaign “will bring people together.�

For his part, Trump has blamed the protesters.

So much for the subdued Donald Trump.

After Thursday night’s relatively civil Republican debate and Friday’s unrest in Chicago that prompted him to cancel his rally there, Trump came out as brash and loud as ever Saturday, pumping up an Ohio crowd in his first appearance of the day.

“These are people who don’t want to see our country be great again,� he said, only ambiguously acknowledging the anti-Trump protesters Friday in Chicago.

He went after rival candidates with his usual insults: “lyin’ Ted,� “little Marco,� and “Bernie, our communist friend,� which drew loud boos.

“We have a divided country. We have black and white, income groups -- everybody hates everybody, even in Congress,� he said, building to a crescendo. “... We have got to change our thinking. If there’s a group out there, just throw ‘em the hell out!� he said, another vague statement that nonetheless drew wild cheers and chants of his name.

(Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Sounding notes of both frustration and disgust, John Kasich blamed both Donald Trump and the media for creating the “toxic environment� that led to Friday night’s unrest at a Trump rally in Chicago.

By contrast, the Ohio governor said, his own presidential campaign has been one based on unifying voters “to restore hope in our country.�

“There is no place for a national leader to prey on the fears of people,� Kasich said Saturday morning to reporters in Ohio. “Donald Trump has created a toxic environment, and a toxic environment has allowed his supporters and those who sometimes seek confrontation to come together in violence.�

Kasich, who has remained largely above the fray as his competitors for the Republican nomination traded increasingly caustic jabs, is counting on his message of hope resonating in his home state of Ohio, where primary voters go to the polls Tuesday.

While he said it’s important that candidates recognize the economic challenges that fuel frustration among some voters, “if our rhetoric is negative, if our rhetoric is divisive, we will not solve these problems,� he said.

Kasich said the media was complicit, too.

“The coverage of this campaign has been disappointing because it seems as though the coverage goes to those who call names,� he said, saying he had been “basically laboring in obscurity in this entire campaign� to present a hopeful alternative to Trump and others.

He said Thursday night’s GOP debate, a mostly civil, ideas-focused affair, suggests that some of his competitors have begun to learn “that ideas matter, vision matters, policy matters, and giving people hope matters.�

“It just took too long for them to realize it,� Kasich said.

Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail in Ohio today, the morning after protesters forced the cancellation of his event in Chicago.

The other Republican presidential candidates, seizing the opening, criticized the tone Trump has set in his campaign events. But none of them has yet retracted his pledge to support Trump if he is the Republican nominee.

Trump opponents who count on the latest controversy to kill his candidacy might want to check history: Often, violent protests only harden the resolve of a candidate’s supporters. Trump remains an extremely polarizing political figure, with avid supporters and detractors, and nothing that happened in the last day seems likely to change that.

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Scroll ahead to the 1 hour mark to skip the pre-rally video.

(Seth Perlman / Associated Press)

Donald Trump likes to claim that he has wide support among “the Hispanics,� but like some other assertions he makes, that one’s not true.

The latest evidence comes from newly released Gallup Poll data: More than three-quarters of Latinos — 77% — view Trump unfavorably, the poll found, compared with just 12% who have a favorable opinion.

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(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)

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