Demonstrators celebrate after Donald Trump cancelled his rally at the University of Illinois in Chicago on March 11.
Bernie Sanders has come out swinging after Donald Trump accused the self-proclaimed socialist contender in the Democrat primaries of paying his supporters to disrupt the leading Republican candidate's events.
The Vermont senator said on March 13: "Donald Trump is a pathological liar. Our campaign will never encourage anyone to disrupt anything."
Commenting on the fact that Trump offered to pay the legal fees of one of his supporters who punched a protester in the face, Sanders said: "What that means is that Donald Trump is literally inciting violence among his supporters."
Sanders comments at a Democratic Town Hall meeting in Ohio on March 13 came after Donald Trump blamed Sanders ("our communist friend") for protests at his rallies, warning the Vermont senator to watch out "or my supporters will go to yours!"
In response, the official twitter account for the Sanders campaign tweeted: "Send them. They deserve to see what a real honest politician sounds like".
On March 11, Trump cancelled a campaign event in Chicago, Illinois, after 10,000 people showed up to protest, citing "safety concerns". Among those protesting were many Sanders supporters, who disrupted the planned rally with chants of, "Bernie! Bernie!"
Trump's event the next day in Dayton, Ohio, was also disrupted after a protester broke through security and got on stage with the billionaire, whose racist campaign has attracted white nationalists and, increasingly, violence. On March 10, Thursday, a Trump supporter punched a Black protester at a rally in North Carolina.
"You bet I liked it," the attacker, John McGraw, later said. "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."
When protesters disrupted another Trump rally on March 12 in Cleveland, Ohio, the former reality show star claimed the "lousy" senator had dispatched his "people" to shut down his events. The next day Trump took to Twitter to claim On Sunday, Trump tweeted about Sanders: "He has ties to ISIS."
In an official statement on March 12, Sanders, who soundly defeats Trump in every poll pitting the two against each other, said: "As is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar.
"Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump's rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests."
"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."
[Compiled from TeleSUR English.]
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