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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin in San Francisco and Amber Jamieson

Protesters force Trump from his car at California Republican convention – as it happened

Protesters force Trump out of car to get to California GOP convention

Donald Trump faces back-to-back protests

The tense anti-Trump protests in California have come to a close, with 22 total arrested across the state. The week’s actions – which included Trump protesters storming barriers and violently clashing with supporters – offer a glimpse at the heated rallies the Republican frontrunner will face in the coming weeks before the critical 7 June primary.

From our reporters on the ground:

The back-to-back protests, stretching from just outside Los Angeles to the outskirts of San Francisco, were a stark rebuke of the Republican frontrunner from progressives in California, a notoriously liberal state that is likely to shape the outcome of the Republican presidential election.

California is the last state to vote in the Republican primary, and the contest that awards the most delegates. It is likely to be the state where Trump either sews up his nomination for the White House, amassing enough delegates ahead of July’s Republican national convention, or falls short.

Read the full story here:

Five arrested at California GOP convention

A total of five protesters were arrested outside of the California GOP convention at the Hyatt hotel in Burlingame, 16 miles south of San Francisco, according to police spokesman lieutenant Jay Kiely.

Kiely, of the Burlingame police department, said the five individuals who were arrested were all protesters who were apprehended outside of the hotel. As of 3.30pm local time, he said he didn’t have any information on the charges or identities of the individuals. “They are being processed now.”

At a Thursday night Trump rally in southern California, a total of 17 people were arrested.

Updated

Police outside the California GOP convention declared that the protest is an unlawful assembly and have pushed the lingering activists off of the hotel property.

As the stragglers retreated, riot police arrested one protester. The cause of the arrest was not immediately apparent. Bystanders shouted, “He wasn’t doing anything,” as the man was escorted away by police.

By around 3pm local time, police had retreated back to the Hyatt where the convention was taking place and it appeared that the protest was coming to a close.

As tensions between protesters and police in northern California continue to escalate, the Costa Mesa police in southern California have released information about the arrests Thursday night at the Trump rally and protest that took a violent turn.

A total of 17 adults were arrested, most between the ages of 18 and 23, according to the department, which labeled the protesters “violent individuals”:

During the ordeal, violent individuals from protestor groups outside the Fairgrounds damaged five police cars, seriously damaging one of the cruisers. A total of 17 adults were arrested by Costa Mesa Police officers for failing to disperse. Those individuals were booked at the Costa Mesa Police Department Jail and later released on written promises to appear.

Paramedics responded to one call for medical aid, involving a “male adult who had suffered a head injury from an altercation with another male”. He was taken to a hospital.

Costa Mesa Police said one of its officers was struck in the head by a protester who threw a rock. The cop was wearing a riot helmet and was uninjured.

Arrests at California Trump protests

An individual was just arrested at the California GOP convention protests, which had appeared to be winding down hours after Donald Trump took the stage.

Officers with shields are clashing with the lingering protesters, and the police continue to advance.

Many of the protesters who showed up to the California GOP convention for Donald Trump’s speech were high school and college students from local schools.

Allie Atkeson, a junior at Burlingame High School, attended with a group of classmates, all wearing matching tie-dye shirts with anti-Trump slogans.

“Trump has this profound intentional ignorance,” she said, admitting that she was cutting school to attend the protest. “I think America has enough hate.”

Silvia Yoc, a 19-year-old student at College of San Mateo, said she was protesting to “show support for the Latino community and our parents who came here to give us a better life”. Yoc, who was born in Guatemala, said Trump has inspired “a lot of fear in our community”.

By around 2.30 local time, there were only about 150 or so protesters left, and police were making a dispersal order over a loudspeaker.

Sanders withdraws DNC lawsuit

The Bernie Sanders campaign has withdrawn its lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee, ending a dispute about the candidate’s access to his voter file data.

In December, the campaign had sued the Democratic party for $600,000 a day in damages, alleging that the DNC breached its contract with the campaign by removing all access to critical voter records weeks before the high-stakes Iowa caucus. The DNC had suspended access for the Sanders team as punishment for a software glitch data breach in which a number of staff accessed records belonging to rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

The campaign regained access a day later.

In a statement Friday, the Sanders campaign reiterated its claim that it had not stolen Clinton’s data:

An independent investigation of the firewall failures in the DNC’s shared voter file database has definitively confirmed that the original claims by the DNC and the Clinton campaign were wholly inaccurate – the Sanders campaign never ‘stole’ any voter file data; the Sanders campaign never ‘exported’ any unauthorized voter file data; and the Sanders campaign certainly never had access to the Clinton campaign’s ‘strategic road map.’

According to the campaign, the investigation confirmed that four Sanders staffers had “extremely short-lived access for one hour to Hillary for America’s scoring models, but not to any of Hillary for America’s proprietary voter data”.

The DNC, in a statement Friday, said that the investigation found that during the one-hour period, “the four users conducted 25 searches using proprietary Hillary for America score data across 11 states”. The DNC also said the results of most of those searches were “saved” within a VoteBuilder system.

The investigation found no evidence of unauthorized access by the Clinton campaign or Martin O’Malley’s campaign, according to the DNC.

Although Donald Trump eventually managed to make it inside the hotel for his California GOP convention speech, some protesters said they were proud of the rally.

Chen See said she felt the protest had been a great success. “We got a lot of people together trying to stop Trump from having a platform,” she said. “Anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-migrant politicians have no place here.”

Roughly two dozen protesters who had been locked together blocking the street disbanded after about three hours.
Conflict between Trump supporters and protesters flared up again when one protester snatched an American flag and promptly ripped it up and set it on fire.
“This is indigenous land,” said the flag burner, who dressed in black and
covered his face.
The burning of the flag drew angry responses from supporters and protesters of Trump alike.

Trump has left the GOP convention in California, but the protests, chants and scuffles outside continue, including the burning of an American flag:

Updated

Trump’s fairly short and uneventful speech at the California GOP convention has come to an end with a joke about the candidate’s very difficult path in and out of the hotel, which is still surrounded by angry protesters. Trump said:

They’re going to take me under a fence, through a field. You have no idea the route they have planned for me.

During his speech, Trump presented himself as the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton, acknowledging that any GOP candidate will have a tough time in the general election:

It’s a tougher road for a Republican than it is for a Democrat. The road is tougher. It’s not as easy. You really have to pick somebody that knows what’s happening that’s really, really good.

Trump said he would win states that other Republicans could never win, including New York and Pennsylvania. “We’re going to hopefully close this thing out fairly soon.”

Tensions continue to rise at the protests outside the hotel where the anti-Trump crowd has hoisted a piñata head of the real estate billionaire on a stick:

Police and protesters are continuing to argue:

Outside the convention, a Trump piñata is burning:

Back inside the hotel, Trump is slamming his opponents Ted Cruz and John Kasich and their joint plan to stop him: “The worst move was making a deal with Kasich,” Trump said of Cruz, while also slamming him for announcing Carly Fiorina as his running mate.

“Cruz did something I’ve never seen. He picked Carly. I like Carly, but when she left, she had no votes.”

Trump further mocked Kasich, who is in San Francisco this afternoon, for staying in the race despite his poor results at the polls: “‘I don’t care, mom! I’m staying here. I’m not leaving.’”

The protests outside Trump’s speech are continuing to spark conflicts. Some brief shouting matches erupted between anti-Trump protesters and a small group of Trump supporters who stood on the sidewalk draped in American flags.

“There’s less racism today than there’s ever been. It’s shifted from white on black to black on white,” said Brian Blake, 28, adding that he believes white people are the main victims of racism today.

“They have black pride, so why can’t we have white pride,” said the property manager from Pleasanton, California.

At least one person has been detained at the side of the convention as police continue to push forward into the crowd:

The billionaire Republican candidate was forced to exit his vehicle and, guided by secret service agents, cross a freeway and squeeze through a barrier in the fence to enter the hotel for the GOP convention.

Earlier, protesters had surrounded the hotel and stormed through barriers.

Trump takes the stage

After facing delays, Trump has taken the stage at the California GOP convention, discussing his difficulties getting past protesters:

That was not the easiest entrance I’ve ever made ... It felt like I was crossing the border, actually. I was crossing the border, but I got here.

He said officials told him it would be easier if he turned around. “I said, yknow, we can’t let these people down. Do you agree? We can’t do it. It was fun. It was a different kind of a thing.”

You can watch a live-stream of the California Republican convention, where Donald Trump will soon speak, here:

Bands of several hundred young protesters, many bearing large Mexican flags, have continued to surge toward the hotel, confronting police at the front and side doors. Some threw eggs at riot police, and one protester cracked a window, but most chanted anti-Trump slogans in English and Spanish and danced to music of a marching band.

Duran Andrade, 18, wore a Mexican flag, Bernie Sanders button, and Che Guevara t-shirt – and carried a sign comparing Trump to Hitler.

“He’s the biggest douchebag,” said Andrade, whose family is of Guatemalan heritage. said. “He’s using scare tactics. He’s racist, homophobic and anti-Muslim.”

Another protester carried a box of six dozen organic eggs, which he passed out to any takers.

Guardian reporter Maria L La Ganga is reporting from inside the GOP convention in California where Trump’s speech is still delayed.

Luisa Aranda, a55-year-old Trump supporter from Brentwood in northern California, said she was verbally assaulted while trying to get into the hotel for the event.

“The protestors called me a traitor,” she said. “They cussed me out!”
All because of the Mexican-American woman’s homemade t-shirt:

Latinos for the Wall
“Latinos for the Wall” Photograph: Maria L La Ganga for the Guardian

Ted Cruz, speaking at a press conference in Indiana, has just commented on the protests at the California convention:

To an extent, these protesters are crossing the line to violence. My understanding is things are getting pretty ugly there ... That is not appropriate. They are entitled to express their own views, but not in a way that is disruptive and muzzles others.

Cruz and his newly selected potential running mate Carly Fiorina are scheduled to speak at the GOP convention in California on Saturday.

The California GOP protest has moved to the side door of the hotel, where Donald Trump’s speech, scheduled for noon local time, has been delayed.

“Fuck Donald Trump!” is the current chant:

Protesters have also taken over a bridge at the hotel and are making a lot of noise.

Around 12.10pm, protesters again broke through barriers and surged toward the hotel. Some threw raw eggs toward police while others carried the police barricades as shields.

Burlingame police did not immediately respond to a request for information about possible arrests.

Earlier in the morning, a police official told KTVU on a live-stream that the convention would go on regardless of the protests and that officials had plans in place to get attendees inside even if the rallies were blocking the roads.

California GOP chairman Jim Brulte, speaking inside the Hyatt Regency near the San Francisco Airport, said the massive protests have delayed Donald Trump’s speech, but that the frontrunner has made it through the doors. He said:

Some people who evidently don’t believe in free speech tried to stop Mr Trump from getting into he hotel ... We’re gonna start a little late, but we’re going to have a great time today.

There were cheers when Brulte praised the local police for ensuring the real estate billionaire got into the building. Trump, he said, arrived four minutes ago.

The largely calm protest outside the California GOP convention turned frantic shortly before noon when a group of the roughly 500 protesters thrust through police barricades and ran toward the hotel doors.
Though several dozen made it toward the door, the mass of protesters were halted by riot police with batons and a giant green hedge on the hotel lawn.

Police are blocking protesters and pushing them off the property.

Trump protesters push through barriers in California

Protesters at the California GOP convention near the San Francisco airport have pushed through barriers and are now rushing the hotel, where Donald Trump is set to give a speech. Julia Carrie Wong reports:

The scene is chaotic:

Anti-Trump protesters at the California GOP convention at the Hyatt Regency near San Francisco Airport have now managed to unveil two protest banners inside the hotel, reports Julia Carrie Wong, who is outside with protesters.

Californian anti-Trump protests include topless women, yoga and piñatas

Julia Carrie Wong is at an anti-Trump rally taking place outside the state’s GOP Convention in Burlingame, California. Trump will speak at 3pm ET.

Several hundred anti-Trump protesters filled the streets in front of the hotel where the convention was taking place, including about two dozen activists who used PVC piping to lock arms and form a chain, blocking the five-lane thoroughfare in two places.

The protesters’ stated intent was to “block access to Trump and his supporters,” according to one of its organizers Antoinette Chen See, though they moved into place after police had already blocked traffic from the street.

“One of the amazingly horrible things about Trump is that he’s unearthed a lot of racism and bigotry that’s not just institutional, but on a deeply personal level,” Chen See said.

The protest drew an eclectic crowd that included grassroots anti-racism organizations, union members, a marching band environmentalists, high schoolers, topless activists, and at least three Donald Trump piñatas.

Zulma Canahui, 16, said that she and her friends were skipping school to protest Trump’s anti-Latino rhetoric.

“Our men are not rapists,” she said. “We’re people. We deserve to be here.”

The atmosphere in the morning was festive, though a few shouting matches erupted between protesters and attendees of the convention.

Jorge Gomez, 57, watched the scene from the parking lot of his tacqueria, across the street from the hotel.

A Mexican immigrant and US citizen, Gomez blamed Trump for the fact that he’d made only three sales by late morning.

“We lost business because of Trump,” he said. “He’s not a good man to be president.”

Updated

The Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s endorsement of Ted Cruz was notable this morning for its half-heartedness, saying the Texas Senator would get his vote but going out of his way to “commend” Donald Trump and point out that he’d support whoever turns out to be the nominee.

As Chris Cillizza writes in The Washington Post:

If you look up ‘lukewarm endorsement’ in the political dictionary, what Pence did on Friday is right there staring back at you.

A former Democrat legislator is running to be elected as a Minnesota delegate to support Donald Trump at July’s Republican National Convention, reports the Star Tribune.

Steve Wenzel spent nearly 30 years in the Minnesota House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (aka The Democrats in Minnesota).

In the Minnesota primary on March 1, Marco Rubio won with 36% of the vote, followed by Ted Cruz. Trump received 21%.

John Kasich is giving the keynote tonight at the California GOP Convention, but he’s also hosting a town hall meeting in San Francisco at 1pm.

A few months back Kasich got the endorsement of The Terminator, and former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Foreign policy has sometimes been a sore spot for Bernie Sanders, but his team tweeted a short video reinforcing his continued criticisms of the Iraq War, Dick Cheney and George W Bush.

Before announcing his endorsement of Ted Cruz, Indiana Governor Mike Pence applauded Donald Trump.

“I particularly want to commend Donald Trump,” said Pence, noting that the billionaire has given a voice to disaffected taxpayers across the country. He also pointed out Trump’s support of Hoosier workers.

“For me this is choosing between three good men,” said Pence. The governor says he will campaign strongly for whoever is elected the Republican nominee.

“At the end of the day I’m very confident that our party is going to come around our nominee, whoever that might be, and deliver a victory,” said Pence.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence endorses Cruz

Indiana governor Mike Pence has endorsed Ted Cruz for president today.

“I will be voting for Ted Cruz in the upcoming primary,” said Pence, live on radio with Greg Garrison moments ago.

“I’m a Reagan conservative... I see Ted Cruz as a principled conservative who’s dedicated his career to advocating the Reagan agenda,” said Pence. “I really admire the way Ted Cruz has been willing to stand up for taxpayers to oppose runaway spending.”

Also noted Cruz’s knowledge and commitment to the US constitution.

Some very embarrassing scripted Twitter banter with the British Royal Family and the Obamas today - with the Queen even assisting in a *drops microphone* joke.

First Michelle Obama tweeted this video:

Then cheeky Prince Harry tweeted a response video, complete with an appearance from his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II:

It’s all to raise awareness of the Invictus Games, a Paralympics style sporting event for veterans injured from wars. The first was in London in 2014 - Prince Harry is patron - while the next is in Orlando, Florida from May 8-12.

But the video does seem to show how much the Obamas love the Royals.

Updated

Now a possible vice-president, Carly Fiorina is out throwing punches in Indiana today.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence will make his Ted Cruz endorsement while speaking to conservative talkshow host Greg Garrison just after midday today, reports local publication The Indy Star.

Donald Trump, John Kasich and Cruz all met with Pence recently attempting to get his endorsement. A former Congressman, Pence became governor in 2013.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence will endorse Ted Cruz today, ahead of next Monday’s Republican primary, say reports.

ABC News’ chief White House correspondent just tweeted it:

As it becomes more likely that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will go head-to-head in the general election, The New York Times has an interesting piece today outlining how Trump is fighting for a battle of the sexes. Clinton’s war strategy is unveiled:

On the debate stage, Mrs. Clinton will not respond in kind to personal attacks: No jokes about Mr. Trump’s hair or the size of his hands. When Mr. Trump’s comments dominate the news, her campaign plans to stick to its message, even if it means being momentarily eclipsed. And when Mr. Trump accuses Mrs. Clinton of playing the woman’s card, Mrs. Clinton will pivot to issues like equal pay for women, paid family and medical leave and raising the minimum wage.

Politico are also looking to the general election, polling both Republican and Democrat strategists in swing states, who say Clinton would crush Trump in November.

“There is positively no way for Trump to win in Pennsylvania,” said a Republican from that state.

“Trump cannot and will not carry Ohio,” a Republican from that state insisted. “He will do well in Appalachia and in the Mahoning Valley but he will get killed in the rest of the state. The danger for the GOP is losing Rob Portman which is a very real possibility under this match-up.”

Added a Florida Republican, who like all participants was granted anonymity in order to speak freely, “Trump is grinding the GOP to a stub. He couldn’t find enough xenophobic, angry white Floridians to beat Hillary in Florida if he tried.”

Paul Lewis in San Francisco and Nina Lakhani in Mexico City reveal that Trump and Cruz aides advised Guatemalan candidate vowing televised executions.

The two men hired by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz to spearhead their presidential campaigns in California are, for the moment, rivals in what could be the most important primary race of 2016.

But four years ago, Tim Clark and Ron Nehring, who are running the California campaigns for Trump and Cruz respectively, worked as paid advisers to a campaign to elect a Guatemalan presidential candidate whose platform included a call for public executions.

Clark and Nehring, the Guardian can reveal, spent six weeks in Guatemala in 2011 working as advisers to Manuel Baldízon, a rightwing populist and business tycoon who campaigned on the promise of broadcasting the executions of criminals on TV.

The pair of Republican political consultants, now at the helm of competing presidential campaigns in California, were paid to advise Baldízon by what Clark elliptically refers to as “business interests”.

Clark confirmed the pair’s involvement in the Guatemalan campaign during a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian.

“Ron called and asked me to come down. He had the contact,” Clark said. “‘Hey Clark, I could use a little help down here. What do you think?’”

“We had bodyguards. We had translators. We drove around in a black SUV full of semi-automatic machine guns in the back.”

“It was interesting,” Clark said of the experience. “Glad I came out alive.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Happy Friday and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House.

Hundreds of anti-Trump protesters turned up at a Donald Trump rally last night in Orange County, California, where the angry crowd smashed a police car window, threw rocks and attempted to flip a police car.

Most of the crowd were young Latinos, protesting against Trump calling Mexican immigrants “rapists”, and his plans to build a wall between Mexico and return all undocumented migrants.

Orange County police arrested around 20 protesters.

As all the candidates start preparing for California and the battle for its crucial 172 delegates, there’s a GOP state convention south of San Francisco today, with Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich all appearing. The Guardian’s Maria La Ganga and Julia Carrie Wong will be there. It runs all weekend, kicking off today with a lunchtime Trump speech, followed by a Kasich dinner speech.

The Cruz/Fiorina ticket is dominating tomorrow, with Cruz speaking at a lunch banquet and his new running mate Carly Fiorina the Saturday dinner keynote. Today Cruz has a “retail stop” with Fiorina in Anderson, Indiana, before he goes on to host a rally in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Failed GOP candidate Jeb Bush finally spoke to the media in the first sit-down since his presidential run to hate on the man who repeatedly dubbed him a “low-energy candidate”.

“I don’t think he’s a serious person,” Bush told CNN reporter Jamie Gangel. “I don’t know which Donald Trump to believe, the one who read from a teleprompter a speech that was inside the lines or the one that wants to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Which Donald Trump is expressing is the one that’s expressing these views? There’s two of them. And I think we need a president with a steady hand.”

So … if Trump gets the GOP nomination, will Bush vote for him? “I hope I won’t have to be faced with that dilemma,” he said.

But the Bush dynasty family member would not vote for Hillary Clinton? “No way,” he replied.

Bush quietly came out in support of Cruz a month after he left the race, but hasn’t been out campaigning for him.

It’s a relatively quiet Friday for the Democrats. Today Hillary Clinton has fundraisers in New York – while husband Bill fundraises for her in Florida – but no public events are planned. After a rally with 8,000 people in Oregon yesterday afternoon, Bernie Sanders seems to have no public events planned until a rally in Indiana on Sunday.

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