I don’t see the various candidates…from either party exactly covering themselves with glory over this — rioting at Trump appearances. The one exception is Ted Cruz:
“It is my hope that all of us can appeal to civility, all of us can carry a message of unity that brings us together rather than seeking to divide it,” he said while in Ballwin, Missouri. “Rather than seeking to inflame hatred, we should be bringing people together.”
On the other hand, Bernie Sanders defended the behavior of his supporters in Chicago:
“What our supporters are responding to is a candidate who has in fact in many ways encouraged violence. Donald Trump has to be loud and clear and tell his supporter that violence at rallies is not what America is about,” said Sanders.
Trump called the clashes between protesters and his supporters “disgraceful”.
John Kasich blamed Trump, saying the real estate mogul had created a “toxic environment.”
“There is no place for this,” he said. “There is no place for a national leader to prey on the fears of the people who live in our country.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sounded frustrated when asked if he would support Trump if he was the party’s presidential nominee.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I already talked about the fact that [Hillary] Clinton will be terrible for this country the fact thatyou are even asking me that question — I intend to support the Republican nominee, but it’s getting harder every day.”
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton blamed the violence on Trump’s “ugly, divisive rhetoric.”
“The encouragement of violence and aggression is wrong and it’s dangerous,”… “What I saw last night in Chicago was deeply disturbing to me. We have work to do.”
(It wasn’t clear if Hillary suspected that there might have been a video which incited the crowd. It was perhaps, just a bunch of folks out for a walk in Chicago and decided they’d go cause some trouble at a Trump rally. Who knows…and besides, what difference at this point, does it make?)
My goodness! Such inflammatory rhetoric Trump uses. No wonder mobs are incited to riot, rape, and pillage! he actually told one protester to “go back to mommy.’:
Trump has courted criticism for remarks appearing to encourage violence against the protesters who have increasingly been disrupting his rallies. In St. Louis on Friday, he mocked those who interrupted his speech and were removed by police, telling them to “go get a job” and one to “go back to mommy.”
“These are people that are destroying our country,” he said at the time, adding, “You know part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is no one wants to hurt each other anymore and they’re being politically correct the way they take them out so it takes a little longer.”
DLH
