NEWS

Trump guarded by Secret Service when protester rushes stage

Chrissie Thompson, and Chris Graves
Cincinnati
Sat., March 12, 2016: Donald Trump points to members of the press inside a hangar at Dayton International Airport. "The media are the most dishonest group of people," he said.

VANDALIA – A man who was “yelling and flailing his arms” tried to rush the stage at Donald Trump’s first Ohio rally this weekend, hours after scuffles between supporters and protesters helped to cancel a Trump event in Chicago.

The man jumped a barrier surrounding the stage where the GOP frontrunner spoke but was tackled by law enforcement officers, said Dayton Police K9 officer Nathan Spelman. People in the audience cried out, and several security officers were seen jumping onto the stage around Trump. He then told the audience of thousands: “Thank you for the warning. I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it.”

The man ended up “in the back of a cop car,” Spelman told The Enquirer after Trump’s rally here in a hangar at the Dayton airport. “I imagine they’re going to jail.”

Video: Person just tried to rush the stage and attack Trump - AR15.COM

The Trump campaign is pressing on with events scheduled in Ohio this weekend ahead of his battle with Ohio Gov. John Kasich in Tuesday’s GOP primary. The real estate mogul had canceled his Chicago rally Friday, citing security concerns, amid reports of loud demonstrations against Trump and scuffles between protesters and supporters. Late Friday and Saturday morning, Trump’s presidential rivals spoke out against the violence that has sullied his rallies and said they might not support him if he becomes the Republican nominee.

“Donald Trump has created a toxic environment,” Kasich told reporters in Sharonville. “Just to see Americans slugging themselves at a political rally deeply disturbed me. We’re better than that."

Kasich: Trump creating 'toxic environment'

At the Dayton-area event, Trump defended his supporters and his rallies.

“These are people that want to make America great again,” Trump said of his supporters. “A planned attack just came out of nowhere. … “They want me to tell my people: ‘Please be nice.’ My people are nice. … They caused no problem. They were taunted. They were harassed by these other people.”

Trump mocked his political opponents for censuring his supporters and the environment at his rallies.

“They all said: ‘At our rallies, we would never have anything like that.’ Well, they don’t have any people at their rallies,” Trump said. “We cannot let our First Amendment rights be taken away from us, folks. We have a right to speak. We are law-abiding people. … We want to get along with everybody.”

Trump saved some of his harshest words for Kasich, with whom he is deadlocked in polls leading up to the Ohio primary Tuesday. Winning Ohio’s 66 delegates would help build Trump’s lead. While Kasich has yet to win a state primary or caucus, a win in Ohio could help force a contested convention, which he largely acknowledges is his only path to the nomination.

Trump criticized Kasich for working at Lehman Brothers before its bankruptcy and for his vote as a congressman in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He repeated an inaccurate statement he has often used against Kasich, saying Ohio’s economic recovery came largely because of fracking. (The state has gained several thousand jobs from the oil and gas industry, vastly outnumbered by new jobs added in other fields.)

“He’s not the right guy to be president. He’s not tough enough. He’s not sharp enough,” Trump said. “Maybe he wins Ohio, and maybe he doesn’t,” he said, to shouts of “No!” from supporters.

“Kasich is a baby. He’s a baby. He can’t be president,” Trump said. He also mocked Kasich on Twitter.

Still, several Trump supporters said they like Kasich and think he has been a good governor, even if they plan to vote for Trump on Tuesday. Trump’s criticism of Kasich generally failed to get a strong reaction from the crowd.

But his supporters did heartily cheer the removal of protesters.

Rachael Fraziere, a Trump supporter, was standing near the stage when she saw a man coming “out of nowhere, screaming, yelling and flailing his arms” as Trump spoke.

“He was maybe two feet from the stage when the Secret Service guys rushed him,’’ said Fraziere, 45, of Powell. Authorities pushed him to the ground and put plastic flex-cuffs on him, she said, before taking him away. Other agents rushed the stage and encircled Trump for a few tense moments. “I was a little startled.”

Fraziere and her fiancé, 45-year-old Chris Famiano of Columbus, had seen footage of the Chicago disturbance and had almost decided not to come to the Dayton-area event. But, in the end, they left home at 3:20 a.m. and made the trip to see Trump.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at the Signature Flight Hangar at Port-Columbus International Airport on March 1 in Columbus.

Besides the interruption on stage, several individual demonstrators interrupted the event before being escorted out by law enforcement officers. “Shut up! Get out of here!” one man yelled at Trump on his way out.

“Get him out of here,” Trump said after one person started protesting. He mocked another young demonstrator, saying he looked like he was 15 and needed to "go home to his mommy."

One Trump supporter grabbed at a protester’s sign. In another instance, security staff grabbed and pushed another man, who was holding a sign that said: “Make America hate again.” But the event was largely free of physical altercations.

Visual journalist Kareem Elgazzar contributed.

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