Sunday, March 20, 2016
Associated Press
PHOENIX
Protesters blocked a main highway leading into the Phoenix suburb where Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump staged a campaign rally Saturday alongside Arizona’s contentious sheriff, Joe Arpaio.
Tempers flared at the rally itself, but without the violence that marred Trump’s event in Chicago a week earlier and with none of the candidate’s usual goading of protesters from the stage.
For hours, about two dozen protesters parked their cars in the middle of the main road to the event, unfurling banners reading “Dump Trump” and “Must Stop Trump” and chanting “Trump is hate.” Traffic was backed up for miles, with drivers honking in fury.
The road eventually was cleared, and protesters marched down the highway to the rally site, weaving among Trump supporters who booed and jeered them.
Trump supporter Geroy Morgan, 62, made it to the rally but was furious at the demonstrators, some of whom still stood around after the event ended.
“We come here, the silent majority, to express our opinions,” Morgan said. “They don’t have any permits or rights.”
Trump and Arpaio have formed a political alliance in recent months, and the billionaire hopes Arizona can serve as a model on how he could win in November. The tough-talking lawman is sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and nearly two-thirds of Arizona’s population. He forced inmates to wear pink underwear and live outside in tents during triple-digit heat. The sheriff has endorsed Trump and introduced him at the rally.
In Fountain Hills, thousands gathered for the outdoor rally in the suburb where Arpaio lives. Officers with the sheriff’s department were posted throughout the park, on rooftops and on patrol. Officers wearing bulletproof vests stood alongside a Humvee with a gun turret on top.
Trump told the crowd that he is “winning by massive landslides” and vowed to rebuild the military and build a border wall with Mexico. He drew cheers from the crowd when he vowed to protect the Second Amendment – which for pro-gun Arizona is a particularly important issue.
He never acknowledged the earlier blockade or the protesters in the crowd.
In Nogales, Ariz., Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, standing in front of the tall, steel fence that divides the United States and Mexico, vowed Saturday to keep immigrant families together.
Sanders was accompanied by Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva. He started the day walking along a small street next to the Nogales-Morley Gate Port of Entry, where he spoke with two young immigrants about their struggles to obtain legal status in the United States.
Standing in front of the fence that divides the two countries, Sanders accused Trump of using harmful rhetoric.
“I would hope that all of us are rightly appalled by the divisive, bigoted and xenophobic comments of people like Donald Trump,” Sanders said.