Trump Blames Clinton and Sanders Supporters for Disrupting Chicago Rally

Trump tweet calls Clinton and Sanders "Phony politicians."

ByABC News
March 12, 2016, 3:55 PM

— -- Republican front-runner Donald Trump is blaming his Democratic rivals for the Chicago protests that he says forced him to postpone a rally there Friday, tweeting that it was Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders' "people who disrupted my rally."

Hours before the tweet, Trump said at a rally near Dayton, Ohio, that some of the Chicago protesters were Sanders supporters and that the Vermont senator "should really get up and say to his people, 'Stop.'"

Trump added: "There were not too many Hillary people there [in Chicago]. You know why? In all fairness to Bernie, the reason that were not Hillary people, they have no fervor. Say what you want about Bernie, at least have a little fervor, right?"

Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, blamed the violence on Trump's "ugly, divisive rhetoric."

"The encouragement of violence and aggression is wrong and it's dangerous," she said in St. Louis today. "What I saw last night in Chicago was deeply disturbing to me. We have work to do.”

Clinton also used the protests as a call to action.

"I want us to roll up our sleeves and get to work and to stand against this tide of bullying and bigotry and blustering that is going on in our political system," Clinton said. "The best way to do that is to turn everybody we can out to vote on Tuesday."

Sanders, too, spoke out again Trump and said he did not think his supporters were inciting violence.

“What our supporters are responding to is a candidate who has in fact in many ways encouraged violence," said Sanders. "Donald Trump has to be loud and clear and tell his supporter that violence at rallies is not what America is about."

Trump told the crowd in Ohio today that the protests in Chicago was a "planned attack" that "came out of nowhere."