Trump Surrounded by Secret Service as Man Tries Rushing Stage
— -- Secret Service agents surrounded Donald Trump during a rally in Ohio on Saturday as a man tried rushing the stage, only a day after he canceled an event over what his team said were safety concerns.
Shortly after mocking a protester who was being escorted out of his event outside Dayton, four Secret Service agents jumped onto the stage and surrounded Trump.
The man who tried rushing the stage, Thomas Dimassimo, was later arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office said. It was not clear if he entered a plea or has an attorney, but he was released on bail Saturday evening.
"I was ready for him, but it's much easier if the cops do it, don’t we agree?" Trump said to the cheering crowd.
According to witness Chris Famiano of Columbus: "Trump was giving his speech and everyone was into it. And within about a split second somebody from around the bend had jumped over the fence and was charging Donald Trump."
"And before you know it the Secret Service had like four or five guys on him, they wrestled him to the ground. They put him in the ties and then they took him away," Famiano said.
Trump earlier told the crowd the protests that forced him to postpone a rally in Chicago on Friday was a "planned attack" that "came out of nowhere."
Trump said more than 25,000 people were registered for the rally at University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion Friday. Protests quickly broke out among some of those in attendance as they waited for Trump to speak.
"They were pouring into the arena," Trump said. "All of a sudden, a planned attack just came out of nowhere."
Trump said the protests were "very professionally done" and placed some blame on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, saying some of the protesters were his supporters.
"[Sanders] should really get up and say to his people, 'stop,'" he said.
Sanders defended his supporters while speaking in Chicago on Saturday.
“What our supporters are responding to is a candidate who has in fact in many ways encouraged violence," he said.
Trump said he hadn't wanted to cancel the Chicago event but did so over safety concerns.
"We dealt with law enforcement at every level," Trump said. "It was determined that if we go in, it could cause really bad, bad vibes."
The Chicago Police Department said it had sufficient officers to handle any issues at the rally. Interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante said the Trump campaign hadn't consulted with the department before calling off the event.
The clashes between protesters and his supporters, which Trump called "disgraceful," led to five arrests and two police officers being injured.
Earlier in the day, Trump blamed "thugs" who denied him his First Amendment rights at the rally.
Before Trump spoke Saturday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the real estate mogul had created a "toxic environment."
"There is no place for this," he said. "There is no place for a national leader to prey on the fears of the people who live in our country."
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sounded frustrated when asked if he would support Trump if he was the party's presidential nominee.
"I don't know," he said. "I already talked about the fact that [Hillary] Clinton will be terrible for this country the fact that you are even asking me that question -- I intend to support the Republican nominee, but it's getting harder every day."
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he would support whomever was the Republican nominee was, though he described Trump's canceled event in Chicago as "sad."
"It is my hope that all of us can appeal to civility, all of us can carry a message of unity that brings us together rather than seeking to divide it," he said while in Ballwin, Missouri. "Rather than seeking to inflame hatred, we should be bringing people together."
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton 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. "What I saw last night in Chicago was deeply disturbing to me. We have work to do.”
Sanders, too, spoke out again Trump.
"Donald Trump has to be loud and clear and tell his supporter that violence at rallies is not what America is about," said Sanders.
Trump has courted criticism for remarks appearing to encourage violence against the protesters who have increasingly been disrupting his rallies. In St. Louis on Friday, he mocked those who interrupted his speech and were removed by police, telling them to "go get a job" and one to "go back to mommy."
"These are people that are destroying our country," he said at the time, adding, "You know part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is no one wants to hurt each other anymore and they’re being politically correct the way they take them out so it takes a little longer."
After his rally in Chicago was called off, Trump told Fox News the protesters there weren't directing their anger at him.
"This has a lot to do with jobs," Trump said. "It has a lot to do with the incompetent running of a country."
ABC News' Ben Gittleson in Cincinnati, Ohio, Brad Mielke in Key Largo, Florida, Jessica Hopper in Ballwin, Missouri, Liz Kreutz in St. Louis, MaryAlice Parks in Chicago and John Santucci contributed to this story.
