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Trump defies protesters as Sanders and Clinton prepare for town hall — campaign live Trump defies protesters as Sanders and Clinton prepare for town hall — campaign live
(35 minutes later)
3.12pm GMT
15:12
Donald Trump did several interviews this morning, but in none was he asked about a criminal complaint filed against his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, by a reporter who alleges that he assaulted her last week.
The reporter, Michelle Fields of the rightwing and pro-Trump site Breitbart, had visible bruises on her arms and at least one other journalist witness the incident, which happened at a Trump rally. The billionaire and Lewandowski have accused her of making it up.
Fields’ employer has also quashed any reporting or commenting on the story, prompting Breitbart’s spokesperson, Kurt Bardella, to quit on Friday. He told CNN that night that his former bosses and Trump are simply lying.
“They have been very supportive of the Trump campaign, and I think there is a desire to want to believe the Trump campaign,” he said. “I think when you’ve gone all-in so much for a candidate, when you have that kind of skin in the game, you don’t want to see that derailed.”
Related: Donald Trump accuses reporter in assault row of 'making the story up'
3.02pm GMT
15:02
Odd!
Gov.Kasich of Ohio just stated on a morning show that he doesn't watch politics or anything on television, he only watches the @GolfChannel
2.56pm GMT
14:56
Martin Pengelly
CBS has finally come round to Bernie Sanders, to ask him the questions he has been asked three or four times already this morning. He’s in St Louis.
Would he tell his supporters to disrupt Trump rallies, as Trump claims? “No, not to disrupt rallies … that’s never what we do.”
Sanders is another candidate looking pale, speaking through a throat ravaged by a thousand stump speeches and the recycled air of a thousand campaign flights. He doesn’t look as existentially haunted as Marco Rubio, though, as he gets down to one of his favourite things: discussing universal healthcare. He duly discusses it with a sort of grim enjoyment.
Asked about Hillary Clinton still taking more delegates than him all-round despite his winning big states such as Michigan, he goes for the candidate’s eternal response: “We have momentum.”
2.49pm GMT
14:49
Martin Pengelly
…and more Kasich, who tells CBS “when I show up I talk about how we can fix things” and “since I’ve been so positive it must be contagious because the last debate was great”. Ah, Sunny John, to borrow Sunny Jim Callaghan’s prime ministerial nickname. Crisis in poll numbers? What crisis?
He says, if you wondered, he will win Ohio and become president, then “solve our most vexing problems using conservative principles”.
He also, basically, hedges on pledging to support the nominee whoever it is, if it’s Donald Trump.
2.46pm GMT
14:46
Trump: I'm just the messenger
Todd asks Trump about his false accusation of terrorist links to a protester who rushed the stage at a recent rally.
Trump pleads total ignorance: “What do I know? All I know is what’s on the internet.”
He says he saw a photo of the protester “dragging the American flag” and that made him very unhappy, but effectively blames the internet for the erroneous claim abotu the protester.
The reason there tension at my rallies is these people are sick and tired of what’s happening in our country.” He rambles about trade deals, about the terrorist group Isis, about the lack of wage increases, etc.
The billionaire claims that he hasn’t incited any anger at all. It was there when he found it.
“The people are angry about that, they’re not angry about what I’m saying. I’m just the messenger,” he says. “I’m just expressing my opinion. What’ve I said that’s wrong?”
Todd does not rattle off any of the many claims that fact-checkers have found the candidate to have lied about or fudged the truth. Trump has a 70% “false” and “pants-on-fire” rating for telling the truth, according to the fact-checkers at Politifact.
Updated
at 2.59pm GMT
2.44pm GMT
14:44
Martin Pengelly
Sopan Deb, the CBS reporter arrested in Chicago on Friday, is now speaking… to CBS.
“There was total pandemonium,” he says, describing how he filmed a man with a bloodied head being arrested and also a scuffle that broke out.
He adds: “Before I knew it a police officer… pulled me down by the hood of my hoodie… put a boot to my neck and cuffed me.”
The police did not listen to his protestations, he says, describing an hour spent handcuffed in a van with other arrestees – including the man with the bloodied head – and his transfer to a station to be charged with resisting arrest.
John Dickerson ends the brief segment: “Sopan is back on the trail with Donald Trump today.”
2.40pm GMT
14:40
Trump may pay assaulter's fees, fears tomatoes
Donald Trump returns to the airwaves on NBC’s Meet the Press. Does he take any responsibility for the “escalated tension”, as host Chuck Todd describes protests in Chicago?
Trump takes credit only for preventing injuries and clashes. He blames protesters, whom he says “weren’t really protesters, they were disrupters, like professionals … these were professionally made signs.”
Todd confronts Trump with the video of him calling for punches to protesters, and then a video of a supporter suckerpunching a protester.
Trump: “I don’t accept responsibility, I do not condone violence in any shape, and I will tell you from what I saw the young man stuck his finger in the air and the other man just sort of had it. But I don’t condone violence.”
He then defends his call to punch someone, saying “We had somebody who was punching, and vicious, and had gone crazy, I’m telling you they’re not protesters, they’re disrupters.”
Trump says he feared an injury by hurled tomato. “Somebody with a strong arm, it can be very damaging, not good.”
The billionaire segues into blaming the media, saying “When they punch, it’s OK. when my people punch back because they have to out of self-defense, it’s terrible.”
He then waffles on whether he thinks that sucker-punched protester deserved to be hit, saying he wants to know what the man was doing before he was hit. “From what I heard there as a lot of taunting and a certain finger was put in the air, not nice, again I don’t condone [violence].” …
So will you pay legal fees of the man who hit him, as you’ve promised?
Trump says he might: “I’ve actually instructed my people to look into it, yes.”
Updated
at 3.13pm GMT
2.40pm GMT
14:40
Martin Pengelly
Donald Trump now on CBS, a bit like Big Brother looming on all channels.
He follows the same plan as he did on CNN and CBS: of course he does. He’s sitting in the same seat, asked the same opening question: do you condone violence? Only when two people have tomatoes and are willing to throw them, he says.
The protester punched in North Carolina – disrupter, sorry – made a “terrible, terrible gesture” with his middle finger, says Trump, implying said disrupter thus deserved to be smashed in the face. And it’s also Bernie’s fault and it’s just not fair how the press treats him. These disrupters: they stop Trump speaking and that’s bad. But he tells the police not to hurt them.
Now we’re on to H1B visas. Why does Donald use them and other laws on tax and immigration to his advantage while preaching fairness in such matters?
“I’m not doing anything wrong, I don’t think those visas should be allowed but they are, they’re the law of the land. I’m a businessman.”
He never went bankrupt either, he adds, unprompted.
If tragedy plus time equals comedy, what does absurdity plus time equal? Surreality?
2.29pm GMT2.29pm GMT
14:2914:29
Martin PengellyMartin Pengelly
John Kasich is next up on Fox. Chris Wallace challenges him about his underperformance in Michigan last week, a similar state to his own Ohio where he has to win on Tuesday. Kasich came third in Michigan.John Kasich is next up on Fox. Chris Wallace challenges him about his underperformance in Michigan last week, a similar state to his own Ohio where he has to win on Tuesday. Kasich came third in Michigan.
Kasich, uncharacteristically testy, rejects this: he has momentum coming out of Michigan, he shared delegates with second-placed Ted Cruz, he’s going to win Ohio and “we’re rising in Illinois”.Kasich, uncharacteristically testy, rejects this: he has momentum coming out of Michigan, he shared delegates with second-placed Ted Cruz, he’s going to win Ohio and “we’re rising in Illinois”.
“Just give us a chance,” he says, pleading for more media coverage. Wallace points out he is on Fox News Sunday today, and asks if Kasich fans in Florida should vote Rubio to stop Trump, as Rubio has said his fans in Ohio should vote for Kasich.“Just give us a chance,” he says, pleading for more media coverage. Wallace points out he is on Fox News Sunday today, and asks if Kasich fans in Florida should vote Rubio to stop Trump, as Rubio has said his fans in Ohio should vote for Kasich.
“I’m not out to stop anybody, I’m out to get elected,” he says. “This is not a parlour game for me.”“I’m not out to stop anybody, I’m out to get elected,” he says. “This is not a parlour game for me.”
It should be noted that there are not many Rubio fans in Ohio, and not many Kasich fans in Florida.It should be noted that there are not many Rubio fans in Ohio, and not many Kasich fans in Florida.
He’s also asked about his stated support for free trade, not a popular position on the Republican trail at the moment, particularly in industrial states like his.He’s also asked about his stated support for free trade, not a popular position on the Republican trail at the moment, particularly in industrial states like his.
“It’s not just free trade, it’s fair trade,” he says, arguing for free trade with the ability to make trade not free should America feel badly done by, aka: having one’s cake and eating it, as my mum will still bafflingly say.“It’s not just free trade, it’s fair trade,” he says, arguing for free trade with the ability to make trade not free should America feel badly done by, aka: having one’s cake and eating it, as my mum will still bafflingly say.
2.24pm GMT2.24pm GMT
14:2414:24
Marco Rubio appears on This Week. He repeats his earlier remarks that there are “unbalanced people” out there who hear Donald Trump and are liable to do anything at his encouragement.Marco Rubio appears on This Week. He repeats his earlier remarks that there are “unbalanced people” out there who hear Donald Trump and are liable to do anything at his encouragement.
“We’re going to have an ugly scene here, we’ve already had these ugly scenes.”“We’re going to have an ugly scene here, we’ve already had these ugly scenes.”
He repeats his stump line that American politics now look “like the comments section of a blog”.He repeats his stump line that American politics now look “like the comments section of a blog”.
Stephanopoulos asks whether standing up to violence is more important than standing by a pledge to support the Republican nominee. “Absolutely we have to stand up to it,” he says, but he still won’t out and reject the pledge. “I’ll be honest with you it’s getting harder every day.”Stephanopoulos asks whether standing up to violence is more important than standing by a pledge to support the Republican nominee. “Absolutely we have to stand up to it,” he says, but he still won’t out and reject the pledge. “I’ll be honest with you it’s getting harder every day.”
“I do not want the conservative movement or the Republican party to be defined,” by what Donald Trump is saying, Rubio adds. He says that the billionaire is playing on people’s emotions and “asking them to give you power so you can go after another group of people.”“I do not want the conservative movement or the Republican party to be defined,” by what Donald Trump is saying, Rubio adds. He says that the billionaire is playing on people’s emotions and “asking them to give you power so you can go after another group of people.”
“Real leadership is recognizing people are angry, recognizing that people are frustrated, and showing them a way forward.”“Real leadership is recognizing people are angry, recognizing that people are frustrated, and showing them a way forward.”
The election has “turned into a real circus, and now it’s turned into something even worse,” he finishes.The election has “turned into a real circus, and now it’s turned into something even worse,” he finishes.
Updated
at 2.54pm GMT
2.22pm GMT2.22pm GMT
14:2214:22
John Kasich is up on the ABC show next, and he tells host George Stephanopoulos that he won’t get “into the mud” with Donald Trump. Again he declines to go after Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric except in the broadest way.John Kasich is up on the ABC show next, and he tells host George Stephanopoulos that he won’t get “into the mud” with Donald Trump. Again he declines to go after Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric except in the broadest way.
“It’s all silly rhetoric,” he says of the criticisms that have ricocheted around the party in the last week.“It’s all silly rhetoric,” he says of the criticisms that have ricocheted around the party in the last week.
Stephanopoulos asks the Ohio governor about whether he has a real chance to win the Republican nomination even if he beats Trump. Kasich doesn’t have enough votes to appear on the ballot for Pennsylvania, for instance, an important state with 56 delegates at stake.Stephanopoulos asks the Ohio governor about whether he has a real chance to win the Republican nomination even if he beats Trump. Kasich doesn’t have enough votes to appear on the ballot for Pennsylvania, for instance, an important state with 56 delegates at stake.
“That’s all a bunch of political gibberish too,” Kasich says, without denying that his name is not on the ballot there. “We’re fine in Pennsylvania, we’re fine, this’ll all be resolved here soon.”“That’s all a bunch of political gibberish too,” Kasich says, without denying that his name is not on the ballot there. “We’re fine in Pennsylvania, we’re fine, this’ll all be resolved here soon.”
2.20pm GMT2.20pm GMT
14:2014:20
So will Ted Cruz support Donald Trump if he’s the nominee, as he’s said many times before?So will Ted Cruz support Donald Trump if he’s the nominee, as he’s said many times before?
“Well, listen, I think if Donald Trump is the nominee I think it’s a disaster for Republicans,” Cruz dodges. “It makes it much, much, much more likely that Hillary Clinton is the president.”“Well, listen, I think if Donald Trump is the nominee I think it’s a disaster for Republicans,” Cruz dodges. “It makes it much, much, much more likely that Hillary Clinton is the president.”
“The answer is not to cry in your beer about it, the answer is not what the Washington establishment is doing which is to try to come up with some magical plan to have a brokered convention.”“The answer is not to cry in your beer about it, the answer is not what the Washington establishment is doing which is to try to come up with some magical plan to have a brokered convention.”
Stephanopoulos presses him – is he condoning Trump’s encouragement of violence, then?Stephanopoulos presses him – is he condoning Trump’s encouragement of violence, then?
“I’m not condoning it,” Cruz says. “But my focus is on winning. Winning the nomination and then beating Hillary Clinton.”“I’m not condoning it,” Cruz says. “But my focus is on winning. Winning the nomination and then beating Hillary Clinton.”
Then he throws a wrinkle in his line that the party should not try to broker the convention, saying there’s difference between a brokered contention and a contested one.Then he throws a wrinkle in his line that the party should not try to broker the convention, saying there’s difference between a brokered contention and a contested one.
The former would be a “absolute disaster” of party leaders trying to engineer a candidate, he says, and would cause “a revolt”. That’s versus a contested convention, he says, which would allow “the delegates to decide”.The former would be a “absolute disaster” of party leaders trying to engineer a candidate, he says, and would cause “a revolt”. That’s versus a contested convention, he says, which would allow “the delegates to decide”.
“If Donald and I both go into the convention and we both got a big chunk of delegates ,” he says, “then the delegates will decide, and that’s allowing democracy to operate.”“If Donald and I both go into the convention and we both got a big chunk of delegates ,” he says, “then the delegates will decide, and that’s allowing democracy to operate.”
2.18pm GMT2.18pm GMT
14:1814:18
Martin PengellyMartin Pengelly
Wallace ends his Fox News Sunday chat with Trump by promising the candidate will like his final question. He didn’t like previous ones about his remarks on Muslims and Trump University. The question is: how do you feel about perhaps wrapping up this race on Tuesday?Wallace ends his Fox News Sunday chat with Trump by promising the candidate will like his final question. He didn’t like previous ones about his remarks on Muslims and Trump University. The question is: how do you feel about perhaps wrapping up this race on Tuesday?
Trump does like it, but he doesn’t discuss it. He just reels off the same campaign points/buzzwords as before and then returns to his disavowal of any responsibility for violence at and around his events.Trump does like it, but he doesn’t discuss it. He just reels off the same campaign points/buzzwords as before and then returns to his disavowal of any responsibility for violence at and around his events.
“We did a good job by postponing the other day in Chicago,” Trump says. “No injuries, Chris. No injuries.”“We did a good job by postponing the other day in Chicago,” Trump says. “No injuries, Chris. No injuries.”
Wallace signs off: “Stay safe on the campaign trail, Mr Trump.”Wallace signs off: “Stay safe on the campaign trail, Mr Trump.”
2.15pm GMT
14:15
Ted Cruz is next on the ABC show This Week, where host George Stephanopoulos asks him to clarify: you believe Donald Trump encourages violence?
Let’s be clear the protesters were in the wrong,” Cruz begins. “when you try to shut down and shout down speech, that’s not what the first amendment allows.”
“Responsibility starts at the top and it’s not beneficial when you have a candidate tell his protesters, punch that guy in the face,” he says. “We need a candidate who respects the people, even engages the protesters with respect.”
“We can disagree and we can disagree forcefully while still respecting each other and engaging in insults and vulgarity.”
Stephanopoulos asks whether the provocations by Trump are meant to get out his voters.
“I don’t know if it’s his strategy or not,” Cruz says, though he admits that Trump’s default position is “simply to use angry rhetoric, often to engage in insults, often to curse and yell, and that’s not a productive solution.”
He says he understands the frustration and angers of partisans for Trump, who’re “angry with politicians who’ve lied to us”, but, he says, “Donald has been enmeshed in that Washington corruption for 40 years”.
NB: the first amendment has no restrictions on the volume of your voice.
2.13pm GMT
14:13
Martin Pengelly
Here’s Donald Trump on Fox News Sunday, from Chicago before a scheduled rally in Illinois, to be followed by rallies in Ohio and Florida. Does he take any responsibility for violence at his events, Chris Wallace asks.
“First of all I disagree totally, Chris, with what you said.”
Well, there’s that.
There’s also the usual procession of vaguely linked buzzwords: “huge crowds”, “thousands”, “the biggest”, “nobody hurt”, “protesters come”, “bad dudes”, “they’re swinging”, “nobody’s been hurt in the last couple of months”.
He is asked about the infamous sucker punch at a rally in North Carolina earlier this week. Does that have a place in America?
“Not it doesn’t,” says Trump. “But the kid did stick up a finger right in someone’s face and this man had had enough.”
That would be the man who subsequently said “we might have to kill” the protester he had just punched, next time.
Again, Trump diverts the interview off into a litany of familiar campaign complaints: trade, the treatment of veterans, China, Mexico. “A big portion of this country is fed up,” he says. “They’re angry, they’re not angry people but they’re angry now.”
And what about his own condoning of violence from the podium? Wallace plays him a selection of such taunts.
The first one, Trump says, was an appeal for help from his crowd because the secret service said two people in the crowd had tomatoes “and being hit in the face by tomatoes is not so good, OK”.
Wallace, normally one of the more incisive US political interviewers, laughs and moves on to the next question.
1.51pm GMT
13:51
John Kasich is the last candidate to appear on the CNN program, where he incongruously holds back on denouncing Trump’s language, as the other candidates have done.
“There’s no question Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere, pitting people against each other,” Kasich says. “He needs to back off of this and being more aspirational.”
He says his own rallies are “aspirational”. “I don’t watch Turmp rallies” or the news, he goes on. “I basically watch the golf channel when I’m traveling, believe it or not, but when I saw the violence in Chicago I had enough.”
Kasich also rejects the criticisms of free trade agreements from Trump and Bernie Sanders, saying they’re not practical: “we’re not going to lock the doors or pull down the blinds and tell the rest of the world to go away.”
Tapper asks Kasich about his history with Wall Street – he spent seven years with Lehman Brothers, where he made hundreds of thousands of dollars until the firm collapsed in 2008 and took the world economy down with it. Who do you blame for the economic collapse, Tapper asks.
“I think there was greed on Wall Street, no doubt about it,” Kasich says. Then he doesn’t answer the question. He says critics and financiers both should find religion, and trust the invisible hand of the
market
God.
“Get a little bit of morality, folks, and realize that free enterprise is great but it has to have a moral underpinning.”
Nobody mentions that religion has existed in myriad forms for thousands of years, always, and often quite compatibly, with greed.
Updated
at 1.58pm GMT
1.42pm GMT
13:42
Rubio: 'it's hard to justify Republican pledge to family'
“We need to wake up,” Rubio says. “This is really going to do damage to America.”
“There are people out there that are unbalanced there are people out there who don’t have control of themselves we don’t know what they will do.”
Rubio is not yet willing to say he will not support Trump, should the billionaire win the nomination. But he gets very close to saying it.
“I’m not prepared to say something different today other than to say I hope we can avoid that,” he says. “It’s getting harder every day to justify that statement to myself, to my children, and to my family and to the people that support me.”
The election has already had extraordinary damage, Rubio says.
“This is not going to end well one way or another. He’s going to be the nominee and he’s going to lose, or he’s going to throw this party into disarray … if it crumbles or divides or splits apart it’s going to be very difficult to hold [conservative] views.”
Trump’s very suggestions challenge America’s founding principles, Rubio says. “We have a president. The president is an American citizen … the president works for the people, not the people for the president … he’s going to singlehandedly do this and do that, without regard for whether it’s legal or not.”
He even holds back on blaming Bernie Sanders or the protesters – though he does say, without evidence, that some of them may have been paid. “I don’t agree with them going and thinking they can shut down a rally,” he says, “but [Trump] wants to deflect and distract.”
Rubio even turns his ire toward the media, saying that they’ve given wall-to-wall coverage to Trump’s outrageous statements for ratings. “We have we contributed, to this culture that has turned American politics into the equivalent of the comments sections in these blogs, where presidential candidates are now basically Twitter trolls.”
Updated
at 1.59pm GMT
1.38pm GMT
13:38
Rubio: Trump threatens our republic
Marco Rubio is now on the CNN, where he sounds exhausted and genuinely alarmed at the turn the presidential election has taken.
“All the gates of civility have been blown apart,” he says. “This is not about political correctness, this is about rules of civility.”
He says he’s “very concerned” about the chances someone gets seriously hurt or even killed because of Trump’s language. “We don’t know what’s going to happen next here. We’ve reached the point if they don’t agree with you that they can get angry at you, that you’re a bad and evil person.”
“Do we really want to live in a country where everybody hates each other? Because we disagree about the tole of government, or the tax rate … we end up hating each other? Cause that’s what it feels like.”
He says he’s “so tired of arguing” and screaming with other Americans, and hearing “’you’re a bad person, you’re an evil person.”
Rubio goes on to say that Trump’s language, telling his supporters that they can “basically beat up the protesters, beat up the hecklers” and he’ll pay legal fees, are becoming incredibly dangerous.
“There are people out there who are not balanced, people out there who are not completely in control of themselves, and they hear something like this from a leader and you don’t know what they’re going to do.”
He goes on: “it’s reckless and it’s dangerous, and I hope people wake up on time and they realize what’s happening here … Without it getting to levels of violence and anger.”
He alludes to “images of Americans now literally at each other’s throats”, the Trump supporter who suckerpunched a protester and then said he might kill someone next time, Trump’s invented story about a general who dipped bullets into pig’s blood, his suggestion that one protester had links to Isis.
The senator frames Trump’s chaotic movement in the strongest possible terms:.“We’re going to lose our republic,” he says. “It looks like something out of the third world.”
Updated
at 1.58pm GMT
1.27pm GMT
13:27
Tapper also briefly asks Sanders about Hillary Clinton’s brief praise for the late Nancy Reagan, whom she said started a “national conversation” on HIV/Aids – and then apologized for the comment, given the former first lady’s extremely conspicuous silence during a health crisis that affected tens of thousands of Americans.
I just don’t know what she was talking about. In fact that was a very tragic moment in modern American history, there were many many people who were dying of Aids, and in fact there was demand all over the country for President Reagan to start talking about this tragedy, and yet he refused to talk about it
I’m glad she apologized, but the truth it was not President Reagan and Nancy Reagan who were leaders … quite the contrary … they didn’t get involved in it.
1.22pm GMT
13:22
Sanders: Trump lies about communism and protests
Bernie Sanders is next on the CNN program, and the host asks the Vermont senator about Trump’s accusations of sending “disrupters” to rallies.
Sanders says we should take “Mr Trump’s words with a grain of salt because, I think, as almost everybody knows, this man” can’t stop lying.
“To call me a communist is a lie. To talk about our organization or our campaign disrupting his event is a lie.”
He acknowledges that some of the protesters in Chicago were supporters of his, “but certainly, absolutely, our campaign had nothing to do with his meeting,”
“Even his Republican colleagues make this point,” Sanders goes on, “his language, his intonations, when you see people suckerpunch, people kick people when they’re down. This is a man who keeps impyling violence and you are getting what you see.”
“In the United States of America you don’t go beating up people, people have a right to peacefully protest,” he says.
Sanders takes the thought further, saying that “Trump is getting nervous” and “getting reckless” because he’s seeing the senator ahead of him in hypothetical general election polls.
“We cannot have a president like Trump who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women,” he says.
He reasserts that his campaign had nothing to do with the protests. “There were many many many organizations,” in Chicago, he says. “I do not like anybody disrupting anybody’s meetings,.”
He concludes that he’ll gladly tell his supporters, as often as he has to, that there’s no place for violence or attempts to suppress free speech.
Updated
at 2.00pm GMT
1.16pm GMT
13:16
Tapper asks about Trump’s tweet this morning that threatens to disrupt Sanders rallies.
Trump: “It’s not a threat, it’s not a threat. It’s not a threat at all! … My people have said we oughtta go to his rallies, when liberals, and super liberals, I don’t even call ‘em liberals.
“These people are bad people that are looking to do harm to our country. These people come into mine … They’re being arrested and all sorts of things are happening to them. … There’s a horrible thing going on in the media. We are treated so unfairly, and I’m treated so unfairly.”
Even Tapper stands up to him, saying people are getting hurt – Trump doesn’t let him finish.
“My fellow Republicans are running against me, they are losing big league.”
Tapper tries to bring it back to the human cost of Trump’s rhetoric, Trump repeats in an irritated voice “excuse me, excuse me!” He dismisses the idea that anyone was hurt or could be hurt because of his rallies.
“The danger was ended by a very good managerial decision not to have” a rally in Chicago, he says. “How many people have been injured at my rallies? Zero, zero!”
Tapper: “I don’t think it’s zero…”
Trump does not mention the protester suckerpunched last week, the reporter assaulted (allegedly by Trump campaign manager), or the protester bloodied outside a rally in St Louis.
He says that his rallies get “thousands and thousands of people” who don’t get hurt, suggesting that the few who do get hurt don’t matter. But he doesn’t acknowledge those people. The interview ends.
1.10pm GMT
13:10
First up this Sunday morning is Donald Trump on CNN’s State of the Union.
Host Jake Tapper tells Trump he’s “being faulted for a tone, encouraging violence”, and asks the Republican frontrunner whether he ever thinks about triyng to calm people down.
“I think in many cases I do lower the temperature,” Trump says, “when I say things like I’d lie to punch him, frankly this is a person” who’s violent and “crazy”.
He says he doesn’t even call the protesters protesters, he says. “I call ‘em disrupters. A lot of them come from Bernie Sanders, whether he wants to say it or not, if he says no, he’s lying.”
“We have great rallies, we have by far the biggest rallies … and out of that we’ve had very little problem.”
“What I did with Chicago, it would’ve been easier to go … because you had professional disrupters, thousands of them, from Sanders, and to a smaller extent Hillary.”
“You had Sanders disrupters going over there … and I’ll tell you what, I think what I did, and I’ve gotten a lot of credit for [canceling]. … My supporters have tremendous love of this country, they’re tired of getting ripped off.”
He says “you would’ve had a tremendous clash,” had he not canceled the rally in Chicago.
12.47pm GMT
12:47
Trump threatens to disrupt Sanders events
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2016 presidential election – of late a contest seeing pepper spray and police intervention, racially charged arguments and violent clashes, all at the stoking of one man: Donald Trump.
Trump began the weekend in Chicago, which he quickly left in a state of disarray: he cancelled a rally at the sight of hundreds of protesters outside the venue and dozens inside it. Those protesters scuffled with his supporters, two police officers were injured and five people arrested, including a CBS News reporter who was charged with “resisting arrest”.
But the billionaire sallied onward, speaking at events in Ohio and Missouri with little regard for facts of the night before. Although Chicago police quickly asserted that “they did not consult us at all”, the billionaire put out a statement that the police were “informed of everything before it happened. Likewise secret service and private security firms were consulted and totally involved”.
He then blamed supporters of Bernie Sanders, organized groups, “many of them thugs”, and defended his sometimes violent fans.
“I don’t have regrets,” he said on Friday. “These were very, very bad protesters. These were bad dudes. They were rough, tough guys.”
He started up again on Sunday. No thuggishness to see here.
Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!
The Democratic candidates denounced him: Sanders called him a “a pathological liar” who heads “a vicious movement” and Hillary Clinton said he was guilty of “political arson”.
His Republican rivals hedged on their pledges to support the party nominee, even Trump: Ted Cruz said his opponent’s campaign “affirmatively encourages violence”, Marco Rubio said “this is what happens” when a campaign feeds off resentment, and John Kasich said the frontrunner was preying on fears.
There are only two days left before Kasich and Rubio’s reckoning: they need to win their home states of Ohio and Florida on Tuesday to have any chance at all of staying in the race. Meanwhile, many Republicans are debating the devil they know – Ted Cruz, a man so personally disliked he has spawned a Zodiac killer meme – versus the devil they don’t – the bilious Trump.
For Democrats, Sanders’ win last week in Michigan rattled Clinton, although she retains a huge lead in delegates and superdelegates according to AP estimates.
All this and more is on the talk show tables this morning, where cable TV hosts will confront the candidates on policy, personality and the campaign chaos. They may even succeed in keeping it relatively civil, as these pro- and anti-Trump protesters did in St Louis.
Updated
at 1.00pm GMT