Rocks, bottles in Trump 'fray'
Washington win
LOS ANGELES, May 25, (Agencies): Protesters opposed to
hurled rocks and bottles outside a rally he spoke at in New Mexico on Tuesday, the same day the bombastic billionaire won the Republican presidential primary in Washington state.
The victory brings Trump, the last Republican standing in the 2016 US presidential race, one major step closer toward clinching his party’s nomination.
But the success was overshadowed by violent antiTrump demonstrations in Albuquerque, in the southwestern state of
Trump
New Mexico.
Chaos erupted outside a Trump rally when protesters burst through metal barriers and tried to storm the city convention center, where the provocative Republican was speaking.
The crowd threw burning T-shirts, bottles and rocks at police, while police on horseback and officers wielding clubs used pepper spray and smoke grenades to try to disperse the crowd.
The protesters, several of whom waved Mexican flags, chanted expletives about Trump. Some also waved signs with expletive-laden anti-Trump slogans in Spanish.
Most of the protesters left before midnight, police said.
Trump has proposed building a wall on the Mexican border, suggested that Mexican immigrants were rapists and drug dealers, and urged the deportation of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Hispanic
New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents — nearly 50 percent — of any US state, and polls show that Hispanics overwhelmingly oppose Trump’s immigration proposals.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the nation’s only Hispanic governor and head of the Republican Governors Association, has criticized Trump’s remarks on immigration and was absent from Tuesday’s event.
Trump addressed a rally of about 4,000 people but was frequently interrupted by protesters, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Police managed to stop a group of about 100 protesters who had tried to storm the convention center when Trump was speaking, the newspaper said. Riot police were deployed soon after.
Several Trump rallies have drawn protests, including one in Chicago in March when his supporters clashed with protesters.
Trump has been criticized as inciting violence at his rallies.
US networks called the race in Washington state for Trump shortly after polls closed at 8:00 pm (0300 GMT Wednesday).
With more than two-thirds of ballots counted, Trump earned 76 percent of the vote.
Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, and while he is not officially the flag bearer yet he is on the cusp.
He headed into the race in the northwestern state with 1,189 delegates, according to a CNN tally, just 48 delegates short of the 1,237 needed for the nomination.
Threshold
Washington state had 44 delegates up for grabs. Trump will therefore cross the threshold and clinch the nomination on June 7, when California and four other states vote on the final day of the Republican primary contest.
Meanwhile, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton won the primary in Washington state.
Clinton’s win might give her some momentum, but it won’t get her any delegates. There were no delegates at stake in the Democratic primary. Washington Democrats already awarded their delegates based on party caucuses.
Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders won Washington’s caucuses in March, getting 74 delegates. Clinton got 27.
Sanders trails Hillary Clinton in the delegate count and he is running out of contests in his longshot bid to catch up.
Clinton is just 78 delegates short of clinching the Democratic nomination for president. She is on track to do so in early June, even if she loses all the remaining contests.
Clinton has 1,768 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Sanders has 1,497.
Clinton’s lead is even bigger when superdelegate endorsements are included. These are the party leaders and elected officials who can support the candidate of their choice.
Overall, Clinton has 2,305 delegates and Sanders has 1,539. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.