[guest post by Dana]

So, it looks like *Little Lyin’ Lewandowski will not be prosecuted for battery against reporter Michelle Fields:

The decision not to press charges against Corey Lewandowski is scheduled to be announced on Thursday afternoon by Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg.

Fields may still pursue a defamation case against Lewandowski, a source said.

Further, this from Aronberg:

…[H]e pointed out that Jupiter police had a low “probable cause” standard to cite Lewandowski for battery. But the responsibility for moving forward with a full-blown prosecution rested with Aronberg’s office, which had to consider whether a crime occurred and whether they believed a jury of Floridians would prosecute.

“We have a higher standard to go forward with a prosecution,” he said.

Michelle Fields responded to the news:

Prosecutor’s office told me they would inform me of decision tomorrow. If reports true, guess they decided to leak to reporters first. Ugly.

And Katy Tur of NBCNews is reporting:

Inside source tells @nbcnews state attorney tried to cut deal where Lewandowski publicly apologized to Fields. Source says Fields agreed, but it’s unclear if Lewandowski did.

Fields just confirmed this:

For those asking, office of prosecutor asked 2 weeks ago if I’d be ok with an apology from Corey. I said ya but haven’t heard back about it

As of this writing, I cannot find a comment from either Lewandowski or Trump regarding the decision.

Also, as has been said: The exercise of prosecutorial discretion is not innocence

(*A mash-up of Trump’s nicknames for Cruz and Rubio, but it seems to be far more fitting when combined and referring to Lewandowski.)

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: As I said a while back:

[I]f prosecutors decide not to file charges — and they may so decide — the same people saying that the prosecutors should exercise discretion will take the non-filing as TOTAL VINDICATION OF LEWANDOWSKI and PROOF THAT THE WHORE WAS LYING!!!!!11!1!!!

But you can’t stop stupidity.

You sure can’t.

On Friday I said:

If I were Michelle Fields, I’m not sure how I’d feel about working for an organization that rushed to exonerate a guy who assaulted me. But that’s up to her.

It looks like she made her decision. Tonight, news is breaking that Fields and Ben Shapiro have quit Breitbart.com:

Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site’s handling of Donald Trump’s campaign manager’s alleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon of their decision Sunday night.

“Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. “I do not believe Breitbart News has adequately stood by me during the events of the past week and because of that I believe it is now best for us to part ways.”

In his own statement, Shapiro said the episode was emblematic of how he believes the site’s management had sold out the legacy of its founder and namesake, the late Andrew Breitbart.

“Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed,” Shapiro wrote.

“Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda, to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter, Breitbart News’ Michelle Fields, in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly assaulted Michelle.”

Strong words.

This is awkward for me, since I knew Andrew, wrote for his sites, and know some of the people still there. That said, the site hastily ran a piece by Joel Pollak exonerating Lewandowski, which it later had to retract when more video emerged. Credible evidence of dictatorial-sounding warnings from Pollak for employees not to support Fields publicly have also emerged. It’s not for me to say how Andrew would have handled any of this. But it’s certainly the prerogative of Ben Shapiro and Michelle Fields to decide, with their greater knowledge of what has transpired internally, that enough is enough. They appear to be making their decision out of principle, and I can’t help but admire and applaud them for it.

P.S. If you don’t know who Michelle Fields is, type her name into my search box at the right for all the background.

[guest post by Dana]

In her own words:

On Tuesday night, I went to cover Donald Trump’s press conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida. I was looking to cover the event like I have covered many live political events for Breitbart News, including an uneventful Trump press conference in Palm Beach the week before.

Addressing the gathered reporters and the nation at large, Trump was in an especially jovial mood Tuesday night. The networks just declared he had won the Mississippi Republican primary and, during his speech, that he won Michigan Republican primary as well.

I wasn’t called upon to ask a question during the televised press conference, but afterwards Trump wandered around, stopping at every reporter to take their questions. When he approached me, I asked him about his view on an aspect of affirmative action.

Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.

The Washington Post’s Ben Terris immediately remarked that it was Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who aggressively tried to pull me to the ground. I quickly turned around and saw Lewandowski and Trump exiting the building together. No apology. No explanation for why he did this.

Even if Trump was done taking questions, Lewandowski would be out of line. Campaign managers aren’t supposed to try to forcefully throw reporters to the ground, no matter the circumstance. But what made this especially jarring is that there was no hint Trump was done taking questions. No one was pushing him to get away. He seemed to have been happily answering queries from my fellow reporters just a moment before.

Lewandowski is no stranger to hostile behavior on the campaign trail, and Trump is no stranger to condoning it. And it’s not like Fields was a protester that Trump’s plainclothes private intelligence officers had ferreted out and sought to expel from the event.

Fields does not mention that she has filed a police report.

As of this writing, the Trump campaign has apparently not offered an apology to Fields nor fired Lewandowski. And as of this writing, I cannot find where the candidate, known for madly tweeting about anything and everything to do with himself, has mentioned the matter either.

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: CNN should ask Trump tonight about the assault. Then, they should have Michelle Fields re-ask the question she was trying to ask Trump about Scalia.

Here it is:

I’m generally reluctant to criticize a decision by a district attorney or state’s attorney, without access to all the information they had. That said, just based on the statement made by the Democrat state’s attorney, I think this is weak. The idea that the Big Defense was going to be something that the suspect (Lewandowski) had already publicly denied — touching Fields because he had to defend Donald J. Trump from Big Bad Michelle Fields — I think is self-evidently absurd.

That said, I can’t get too wound up over this.

I am interested by the fact that they didn’t talk to anyone from the Secret Service; that Lewandowski’s legal team drafted an apology to Fields; and that the state’s attorney says there is no reasonable doubt that Lewandowski grabbed Fields.

In other words, Lewandowski lied.

But we all knew that.

P.S. In the video above, they make reference to a surveillance video that they were all planning to watch, that supposedly has audio. I can’t find it. If anyone can direct me to that, please let me know.

Today, Chris Matthews asked Donald Trump if women should be punished for having an abortion. After trying to avoid the question, Trump looked to the side, clearly thinking about it for the first time on the spot, and said yes. The money part comes at 1:32:

MATTHEWS: Do you believe in punishment for abortion? Yes or no? As a principle?

TRUMP: The answer is . . . that . . . there has to be some form of punishment.

MATTHEWS: For the woman?

TRUMP: Yeah, there has to be some form.

When he says “there has to be some form of punishment,” his tiny right hand comes down in a chopping motion, as if to say: I just made the decision.

I told my wife he’d walk it back within hours. Lo and behold:

Donald J. Trump Statement Regarding Abortion

If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. My position has not changed – like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions.

HIS POSITION HAS NOT CHANGED, CITIZEN.

This is, of course, far from the first time that Trump has told a lie so brazen it makes the attentive voter laugh out loud at his chutzpah. Allahpundit links a good article at The Federalist on Trump’s gaslighting of America:

The term “gaslighting” comes to us from a play called “Gas Light,” written in 1938 by British playwright Patrick Hamilton. The play focuses on an abusive husband in the 1880s who convinces his wife that she is going crazy. One of his methods is lowering the gaslights and telling her it hasn’t gotten any darker. It’s all in her imagination.

Donald Trump has been playing this game on the American people, or at least a meaningful portion of it, for five months now. Telling us that Trump University was a success. Telling us that he only worked with the mafia because everyone in his business had to. Telling us that his campaign manager Corey Lewandoski never touched Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Then telling us so what if he touched her.

The Secret Service said nothing happened. They were concerned about that pen, it could have been a bomb. She was grabbing me, you can see from this screengrab where I’m actually reaching into my jacket pocket. I’m self-funding, but my FEC statements say I have taken in seven million dollars. I don’t solicit donations. Never mind the button on my Web site that says donate. I didn’t condemn David Duke because of a bad earpiece. I don’t know who David Duke is, even though I quit the Reform Party because of him. I’ve been audited every year, for twelve years, two or three years, the last four or five years, and I’ll give you a letter to prove I’ve been audited, and when you ask me again next month I’ll promise to give it again. Excuse me! Ted sent out that ad about Melania. And Ted gave people these mailers, it said there’s a voting violation, you can clear it up if you vote for Cruz. I think that’s a flattering picture of Heidi Cruz that I retweeted. I’m changing on H1B visas, no I’m not, but anyway those aren’t for high-skilled jobs, which is a lie but you won’t call me on it. Excuse me!! I never said Marco Rubio was Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator! Except on my Web site! I didn’t praise China’s crackdown at Tiananmen Square. I just said it was strong, but calling it strong isn’t praise. I was the one who kept saying don’t go into Iraq. OK I said we should invade beforehand, but I changed my mind quickly. Also I always said the way Bush Sr. did it was right. Only that’s not what I told Howard Stern, I said he should have finished the job. I got a small loan from my dad but now I’m worth over $10 billion, even though I got a tax break for middle-income families and admitted under oath that my net worth changes by billions depending on my mood. I own the Empire State Building. I was appalled when Vicente Fox said fuck. If I ever used language like that, people would go ballistic, and if you disagree you’re a fucking pussy. Excuse me! I’m skipping the debate with Megyn Kelly because I have a planned speech. I’m skipping the other debate with Megyn Kelly because I have to raise money for veterans, which they have gotten maybe half of. I’m anti-establishment, but there’s nothing wrong with a little establishment. I think the most important functions of the federal government are security, education (but I hate Common Core and want the states to run it) and health care (but I hate ObamaCare and want health care run privately). I’m against nuclear proliferation but it’s not a contradiction to say give nukes to South Korea and Japan. Nobody’s more supportive of women than I am. Excuse me! Nobody knows more about foreign policy than I do, but don’t ask me questions about key terrorists because that’s a gotcha. The Chicago Police told me to call off that rally. Almost everybody who attended Trump University praised it. I personally vetted all the faculty, except I didn’t. Poll after poll says I’ll beat Hillary.

The man lies to your face — constantly, every few seconds — and when you question it, he tells you he’s not.

Gaslighting.

[guest post by Dana]

So where’s he been for the past week while his boss has been burning up Twitter and the airwaves insisting that Ted Cruz was indeed involved? :

Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that Ted Cruz’s campaign was not involved in an attack ad on Trump’s wife, Melania. Lewandowski’s comments contradict his own candidate’s repeated claims the Cruz campaign was responsible.

Lewandowski made the comments on the John Fredericks Show, where he denied the Trump campaign had any involvement with a National Enquirer story alleging Cruz had affairs with five different women. Roger Stone, a long time Trump aide who is no longer affiliated with the campaign, was quoted in the story.

“I have no control over what Roger Stone does, doesn’t work for the campaign. He’s an independent individual who has no relationship with the campaign in any way, shape, or form,” said Lewandowski. “For them to intimate otherwise is completely inaccurate and it’s a narrative that they want to continue to perpetuate. The bottom line is Roger Stone is as much tied to this campaign as the super PAC that leaked that is tied to the Cruz campaign.”

Lewandowski also said this during the interview:

“To be clear, Roger Stone is someone who does not work for the campaign. He was a consultant to the campaign up until August of last year and then I’ve had no communication with Roger Stone until August of last year,” said Lewandowski. “For the Cruz campaign to equate that Roger Stone is part of this campaign is akin to us saying the super PAC that put out the pictures of Melania Trump is part of their campaign. Now, they can deny that, and they can say that they have no communication, but the two are exactly equal.”

No Twitter response from Trump thus far. Maybe that’s because he’s too busy trying to figure out how to catch up to Cruz given the *latest poll numbers from Marquette Law School in Wisconsin which show him trailing at 30% to Cruz’s 40%, or maybe he’s otherwise preoccupied with backtracking on his comment made this morning that women who have illegal abortions should be punished.

[*poll was done Mar. 24-28, before last night’s CNN GOP townhall and Scott Walker’s announcement supporting Cruz – Ed.]

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: To me, this is the best proof yet that Trump is behind the Enquirer story. Think about it. Why would Lewandowski admit Cruz isn’t behind the Melania ad? Because he’s honest? Come on. We just got through watching him lie his way through the Michelle Fields incident. He learned con artistry from Trump. And this is a con: you admit something surprising (OK, Cruz wasn’t behind the Melania ad) to give yourself credibility when you tell the lie (Trump wasn’t behind the Enquirer story). It’s a two-fer: keeps it in the news a little longer, and gives the story faux credibility. I don’t buy any of it for one second, and neither should you.

OH THE HUMANITY!

Donald Trump on Tuesday night offered America a new menace to be afraid of: a reporter with a pen.

Trump, speaking at a CNN town hall event, said former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields had been holding a pen when she approached him with a question earlier this month at an event in Florida.

“She had a pen in her hand, which Secret Service is not liking because they don’t know what it is, whether it’s a little bomb,” Trump said.

This led Philip Bump to tweet out a horrific possibility. Brace yourself. Maybe sit down first.

@Olivianuzzi olivia

what if

what if the terrorists get pens

— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 30, 2016

This is, by the way . . . not what Trump said at the time.

“I heard that nothing happened. You know, we’re surrounded by Secret Service. We have many Secret Service. You see some of them here. When we left, I spoke to them. Nothing happened. This was, in my opinion, made up,” he told CNN.

“Now I didn’t see anything. All of a sudden we heard about it later on. But the Secret Service said nothing happened. The Secret Service are amazing people. They said absolutely nothing happened. He [Corey Lewandowski] didn’t hear about it until like, the next day,” Trump continued.

Here’s the Sniveling Coward whining about Fields supposedly running up and grabbing him, and Lewandowski acting as an intermediary:

Funny thing, though. At the time, his story was that she was “delusional” and that he “never touched” her:

@MichelleFields you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.

— Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) March 11, 2016

This was not an isolated claim. Lewandowski repeated it a week aga:

One week ago I asked @CLewandowski_ directly if he ever touched @MichelleFields.

He denied it completely.https://t.co/8fPqT7Kfd9

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 29, 2016

The Daily Mail, or as I now call it, the British Breitbart, had a laughable story citing an anonymous source allegedly from the Secret Service (one wag said the source’s name might be Lorey Cewandowski) saying Fields had touched Trump twice, and they had told her not to:

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of Trump’s U.S. Secret Service detail told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that Fields made physical contact with Trump twice – and was warned by agents to stop – before Lewandowski grabbed her arm to pull her away from the billionaire.

‘She crossed in between agents and our protectee after being told not to,’ said the agent, who was present that night in Jupiter.

Yesterday I confronted editor David Martosko on Twitter about some gaping holes in the story.

@dmartosko Did you ask him 1) why Trump said SS said nothing happened? 2) why they did not intervene and CL did? 3) where is order on audio?

— Patterico (@Patterico) March 29, 2016

Martosko took the time to mock me for being “in the cheap seats” (I don’t have access to Trump like the British Breitbart does, in other words) but never answered those questions. Clearly, they weren’t asked. Because there is no good answer to them.

Let’s go over the specifics. I already pointed out how Trump claimed at the time that “the Secret Service said nothing happened.” Nothing in the British Breitbart story about that.

Why doesn’t the video show what this anonymous source said? Look at the video. It does not show any Secret Service person trying to do anything. It does show Lewandowski grabbing Fields. It does not show Fields grabbing Trump. It does show that Trump’s deceptive screengrab, which in isolation looks like him pulling away from her, is really him reaching in his jacket pocket.

Why doesn’t the audio reflect what this anonymous source claims? It’s definitely worthwhile revisiting the audio. This supposed order, barked by Secret Service agents worried Fields might have ONE OF THEM DANGEROUS PEN BOMBS!!!! . . . cannot be heard on the audio.

At all.

The Daily Mail story is rank bullshit.

In conclusion: I feel reassured now that Trump and his team know just how to handle a crisis in a calm manner. Don’t you?

Team Trump's handling of the Fields incident is basically a blueprint for turning a minor airspace issue w/China into thermonuclear war.

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) March 29, 2016

[guest post by Dana]

Corey Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery today in the Michelle Fields case. She was the reporter who alleged that Lewandowski grabbed her while she attempted to ask Donald Trump a question at a press conference earlier this month.

Lewandowski, who has denied any wrongdoing, plead not guilty this morning in Jupiter, Florida. He is expected to appear in court on May 4.

Donald Trump tweeted:

Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!

Followed by:

Why aren’t people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened, that is before she found out the episode was on tape?

Michelle Fields responded to Trump’s tweet:

Because my story never changed. Seriously, just stop lying.

Trump also asked whether he could press charges against Fields for allegedly touching him at the time of the Lewandowski incident:

[Per a commenter’s suggestion: If you watch the video below, “you will see that Trump’s screengrab is deceptive. He was reaching for something in his pocket” – Ed]

The Jupiter PD released a video of the incident as seen from a different angle:

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Watch the video and you’ll see Trump’s screengrab is deceptive. He was reaching for something in his pocket. Shocking, I know, that he would lie like that, isn’t it?

I was going to take up nk’s idea of a one-word post that says “Trump” — but I actually have something to say today. Dang it.

I’m not doing a step-by-step debunking of all the junk surrounding the National Enquirer story. But there’s one guy out there, Mike Cernovich, who is spreading misinformation about it. By ripping stuff out of context, Cernovich sees “smoke” where there is nothing but fumes from dry ice. Example:

Alleged Cruz mistress @amandacarpenter calls Cruz "Daddy." #cruzsexscandal https://t.co/uVodTtQwfE pic.twitter.com/wLdnSrv5ab

— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 27, 2016

This is actually false, as you can see. Carpenter does not call Cruz “Daddy.” She calls him “Daddy Cruz” — and why might that be? Look at the date on her tweet: December 22, 2015. Was there anything happening that day that involved the Washington Post and Ted Cruz as a father of actual daughters? Hmmmmmm:

Classy. @washingtonpost makes fun of my girls. Stick w/ attacking me–Caroline & Catherine are out of your league. https://t.co/N61ys6z8w1

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 22, 2015

Because the cartoonist deleted the tweet, you’ll have to look at Dana’s December 22, 2015 post to remind yourself of what it said. Fortunately, Dana had the screenshot:

Before the cartoonist deleted it, it was an animated GIF of Cruz pulling his daughters like monkeys on leashes. Something that made Daddy Cruz angry at the Washington Post.

But Cernovich now has his false narrative that has Carpenter calling Cruz “Daddy” as in “WHO’S YOUR DADDY” and he runs with it in other out-of-context tweets:

Daddy Cruz was in a fun mood, according to Amanda Carpenter, at 5:22 a.m. Up all night? #CruzSexScandal pic.twitter.com/ipnwmcpE1l

— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 27, 2016

Cruz and alleged #CruzSexScandal mistress Amanda Carpenter had matching tattoos. Cute! https://t.co/YIuqfgFdr7 pic.twitter.com/achPHtdFBc

— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 25, 2016

AMANDA AND “DADDY” CRUZ GOT MATCHING TATTOOS!!!1! BusTED AMIRITE?!?!?!!!!!1!!!

Except, looking at the date on the tweets might help: April 1, 2014. Carpenter worked for Cruz back then, and the staff all decided to get these Winston Churchill tattoos, and have Cruz pretend on TV that his was permanent, as a joke. An . . . April Fool’s joke.

I think this April Fool's Day I might break out the fake Churchill tattoo again. Bc that's what it was. A staff wide joke. For April Fool's

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) March 28, 2016

Why did I tweet about it early am? So when Cruz went on TV to show his new "tat" there was a warning he was having fun. Keep up Trumpies.

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) March 28, 2016

These are just examples. There’s more: photoshops of Carpenter putting condoms on her [UPDATE: supposedly balancing a wrapped condom on the shoulder of her dress, to clarify]; pretending that Carpenter is wearing Cruz’s jacket in one of the photos above when it is a woman’s elbow-length jacket with ruched sleeves; and so on.

It’s shameful what these people are doing. But low-information folks might take nonsense like Cernovich’s as convincing. It’s like a lot of what Trump says: it’s total crap if you think about it for one moment. So I figured it was worth taking that moment to set forth the context that folks like Mike Cernovich aren’t giving you.

UPDATE: Also, there is security camera footage of Corey Lewandowski grabbing Michelle Fields, truthers. Enjoy. He has been charged with battery. It deserves its own post but no time this morning.

[guest post by Dana]

At a campaign rally last night in Arizona, Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was caught on video yanking a young protester by the collar, albeit not towards the ground as Michelle Fields alleged he did to her.

Here is Donald Trump's campaign manager in the Tucson crowd grabbing the collar of a protester. pic.twitter.com/JZ9RntWlHY

— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) March 19, 2016

The Trump campaign immediately released the following statement:

Corey Lewandowski was speaking with a protestor at today’s rally in Tuscon, Arizona when the individual he was speaking with was pulled from behind by the man to Lewandowski’s left. The video clearly shows the protestor reacting to the man who pulled him, not to Mr. Lewandowski. Mr. Trump does not condone violence at his rallies, which are private events paid for by the campaign.

This morning, Trump told George Stephanopoulos that the police were a little lax, and then gave Lewandowski credit for having spirit:

Here is another incident caught on video from a different rally last night in Arizona. An alleged Trump supporter is seen pummeling a protester:

VIOLENCE at another Donald Trump rally, this time in Tucson, AZ. Man hits and kicks protester: pic.twitter.com/7FWuSeE0Jt

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorpNBC) March 19, 2016

Here is the same incident from another angle:

Went to the Trump rally just to see how crazy it would be……..this is insane pic.twitter.com/QFwSwmNoI0

— Alex Satterly (@alex_satterly) March 19, 2016

Also, CNN reported about another rally disruption :

As he made his remarks, Trump was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, some of whom engaged in physical altercations with supporters. Behind Trump, a standoff between security and about two dozen demonstrators in the bleachers took place.

At one point, Trump turned around at the podium as he watched protesters escorted out of the venue.

“These are not good people folks,” Trump said, adding, “They’re not really protesters, they’re agitators.”

–Dana

UPDATE: According to this report by John Fund, security inside a venue like the one where the Trump rally was held is the responsibility of the organizer:

My brother Robert was on the Tucson police force for 30 years, and he told me today that at a private arena such as the one Trump spoke at the responsibility for security INSIDE the arena is left to the organizer, not the local police. A currently serving police officer who attended the rally and is a Trump supporter told me that he viewed the private security Trump had there as the ones who were “lax.” He said that hiring off-duty cops is expensive at $30-plus an hour, and many private events don’t hire any, or only a couple. “The security I saw at the rally were unprofessional and looked like rent-a-cops,” he told me. “It is insulting of Donald Trump to blame the police for his rally problems and we clearly were not.”