Donald Trump spent the weekend acting like someone determined to prove the relatively moderate tone he struck at a Thursday night debate was an aberration.
A day after Trump touted a “very elegant” debate, organized anti-Trump demonstrators clashed, at times violently, with Trump supporters in Chicago on Friday night. The chaos caused the Republican presidential front-runner to cancel a rally.
Trump reacted with anger Saturday. He called the protesters thugs and blamed the protest on Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, based on the the fact that many of the Chicago protesters supported Sanders.
Explaining he had no involvement in the protest, Sanders called Trump “a pathological liar.”
Sanders, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, President Obama and all three of Trump’s remaining Republican rivals said the real estate developer was responsible for the mounting violence at his rallies. They urged Trump to stop egging on violent supporters.
Trump responded Sunday by saying he may pay the legal fees of a man charged with a assault for attacking an African-American protester at a Trump rally. The man, John McGraw, 78, told a television reporter he had enjoyed hitting the unsuspecting protester in the face.
“The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” McGraw said.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Trump said that McGraw “obviously loves his country, and maybe he doesn’t like seeing what’s happening to the country.”
He “got carried away” Trump said.
Earlier Sunday, Trump threatened to send his own supporters to disrupt Sanders’ events. “Be careful Bernie,” Trump warned.
Trump got a scare himself Saturday, ducking as Secret Service agents mounted the stage to protect him when a man tried to charge the stage. The man later said he hoped to show Trump is a bully.
Trump claimed Saturday that the protester had ties to the Islamic State. That claim was debunked as the result of a hoax video. Confronted with that fact Sunday, Trump explained his campaign had merely passed on online information.
“All I know is what’s on the Internet,” Trump said, immediately creating a popular hashtag.
Trump’s weekend theatrics drew new condemnations. Singer John Legend and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called Trump a racist.
“I didn’t realize this was in question,” the Democratic mayor quipped.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights icon, compared Trump to Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called Trump a bully and implicitly compared him to members of the Ku Klux Klan, the group Trump declined to condemn on CNN.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both competing with Trump for support in key GOP primaries Tuesday, edged toward abandoning their pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, even if it’s Trump.
“It’s getting harder every day to justify that statement to myself, to my children, to my family, and to the people that support me,” Rubio said. “This country deserves better. At some point, people have to wake up here.”
Rubio said Sunday that he is concerned anger and violence on the campaign trail will lead to someone dying.
Trump is “getting close” to being disqualified from being the Republican nominee, Kasich said Saturday.
“He’s got to tone it down, because pitting one group against another is toxic and divisive,” Kasich said.
Rubio and Kasich edged closer this weekend to a tacit alliance. Rubio has urged his supporters to vote for Kasich in Ohio. Kasich won’t go that far, but he pointed out Sunday that he is not even campaigning in Florida. He also noted he has no chance to win the state. Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, and leading Trump basher, is urging Republicans in Florida to back Rubio and those in Ohio to back Kasich.
Kasich announced Sunday that he will campaign with Romney ahead of Ohio’s primary Tuesday.
Rubio won Washington, D.C.’s Republican convention Saturday, capturing 10 of the district’s delegates. Kasich finished just behind Rubio capturing nine.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, easily won most of the presidential delegates from Wyoming, which has 80,000 fewer residents but three more members of Congress than Washington.
