Trump rally repeatedly disrupted by protesters

A roundup of Friday’s happenings on the 2016 presidential campaign trail:

Donald Trump

Trump’s rally Friday evening at a New Orleans airport hangar was repeatedly interrupted by more than two dozen protesters, including many from the Black Lives Matter movement.

Trump was in Louisiana to rally voters ahead of the state’s GOP presidential primary on Saturday.

But the event was overshadowed by the protesters, some of whom stood clustered, holding onto each other to resist being removed by police.

Video footage from the event showed that some of the confrontations between protesters and supporters turned violent, with shoving and even biting.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders continued to blame “disastrous” trade policies for the staggering loss of manufacturing jobs in auto-centric Michigan and other states.

At a rally Friday night in western Michigan, the Vermont senator told thousands of supporters at Grand Valley State University that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, has supported bad trade deals. He said American workers should not be forced to compete against people in other countries making as little as 50 cents an hour.

Michigan’s primary is Tuesday, and Sanders and Clinton will debate Sunday in Flint — where residents’ water supply is contaminated with lead.

John Kasich

Republican candidate Kasich downplayed the idea that a contested convention would result in too much chaos for the GOP.

Speaking to reporters in Holland, Michigan, Kasich said conventions have rules that outline a “fair process.” He said if a candidate doesn’t come into the convention with enough delegates to clinch the presidential nomination, that person is not entitled to be picked as the nominee.

Kasich is hinging his candidacy on winning his home state of Ohio on March 15 and stopping Trump from going into the convention with the necessary 1,237 delegates.

Marco Rubio

On the eve of the Kansas presidential caucuses, Rubio assured voters he would never house foreign prisoners in their state.

Rubio told more than a thousand enthusiastic supporters in Kansas City that foreign detainees “don’t have the right to remain silent, and we’re not bringing them to Kansas.” Instead, the Florida senator says “they’re going to Guantanamo.”

The issue has been a source of tension in Kansas since Pentagon officials visited Fort Leavenworth last year as they studied placement options for prisoners now held at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ben Carson

Carson, who recently ended his White House bid, declined to endorse any candidate for the Republican nomination, though he says he has “talked to all of them this week.”

Carson reiterated that he is leaving the campaign trail, something he announced on his Facebook page the day after Super Tuesday contests.

Carson said he will now be working on a project to encourage religious values voters to participate in elections.

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz said a contested convention would cause a revolt among Republicans.

He said voters keep rejecting “all of the golden children” of the Washington establishment and that’s why talk has turned to a contested convention. “The way to beat Donald Trump is with voters,” he said.

Cruz spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Maryland, where an enthusiastic crowd greeted him.

He noted that Trump was skipping the event, theorizing that Trump was not attending because he didn’t want to answer questions from conservatives and young people. Trump’s campaign said he had decided to hold two rallies elsewhere instead.

Hillary Clinton

Clinton said the nation needs a “new bargain” to create better-paying jobs, pointing to Michigan as an example of manufacturing success.

Clinton was speaking at Detroit Manufacturing Systems, which makes instrument panels for cars. She said the corporations need to do right by their communities and the nation, employers should treat workers “like assets to be invested in” and the government shouldn’t reward greed and special interests.

Clinton was campaigning in Michigan ahead of the state’s primary next Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 11:38 PM with the headline "Trump rally repeatedly disrupted by protesters."