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               Trump's Supporters, Opponents Clash in California

   by VOA News

   Several people were arrested Thursday night as police broke up clashes
   between supporters and opponents of controversial U.S. Republican
   presidential front-runner Donald Trump in Southern California.

   At one point, police in riot gear and on horseback formed a barrier
   between the two groups outside Orange County's Pacific Amphitheater,
   where Trump delivered a campaign speech.

   The windows of a police car were smashed and several people were
   injured before the crowd was brought under control.

   Earlier Thursday, billionaire business mogul Trump belittled Democrat
   Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency, saying she would not have a
   chance except for the fact that she is playing the "woman's card" in
   hopes of becoming the first female U.S. president.

   The real estate developer told NBC News, "She's playing that card like
   I've never seen anyone play it before.  All I'm doing is bringing out
   the obvious, that without the woman's card, Hillary would not even be a
   viable person to even run for a city council position."

   It was Trump's latest gender-related attack on the likely Democratic
   presidential nominee, the wife of former president Bill Clinton and a
   former senator and secretary of state in her own right.  After winning
   five state Republican nominating contests and taking command of the
   party's nominating race earlier this week, Trump said that if Clinton
   were a man, she would only get 5 percent of the vote in an election.

   "If fighting for women's health care, and paid family leave, and equal
   pay is playing the 'woman card,' then deal me in," Clinton retorted,
   drawing cheers from her supporters at a rally in Philadelphia as she
   celebrated four Democratic primary election victories that moved her
   closer to clinching the party's presidential nomination.

   ''

   Trump's remarks about Clinton and a "woman's card" have drawn a
   backlash among women in the United States.

   U.S. political surveys have consistently shown that women, often 70
   percent or more, hold a negative view of Trump.

   The polls show Clinton with about a 9-percentage point lead in a
   hypothetical face-off with Trump in the November national election to
   pick the successor to President Barack Obama, who leaves office in
   January.

   The next key race for both candidates is Tuesday, with Republican and
   Democratic party primaries in Indiana, a conservative Midwestern state
   with vast farmlands and industrial centers.

   Cruz and another Republican contender, Ohio Governor John Kasich, have
   been mathematically eliminated from winning a first ballot nomination
   victory at the party's July national convention.  They are trying to
   keep Trump from claiming the nomination on the first round of voting in
   hopes that convention delegates will pick one of them on a subsequent
   ballot.

   A win in Indiana for Trump would not officially clinch the party's
   presidential nomination for him, but would give him a significant edge
   as he heads to the last nine remaining state nominating contests that
   run through early June.

   Numerous Republican figures in Washington are wary about party voters'
   preference for Trump or Cruz, skeptical that either one of them can
   defeat Clinton.

   Many Republican lawmakers in Congress supported other candidates who
   have long since dropped out of the presidential race.  They say Trump
   has often supported Democratic candidates in the past and voiced views
   that are at odds with traditional, conservative Republican positions.

   ''

   Meanwhile, Cruz has won few friends in Congress, relishing his role as
   a conservative firebrand with barbed attacks on Democratic and
   Republican leaders alike.

   Former House Speaker John Boehner, who led the Republican-controlled
   chamber before retiring last year, described Cruz as "Lucifer in the
   flesh" as he spoke to a group of students Wednesday in California.

   "I have Democrat friends and Republican friends," Boehner said while
   discussing Cruz.  "I get along with almost everyone, but I have never
   worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life."

   Cruz, campaigning in Indiana, said he had never had any substantive
   conversations with Boehner. He said the former House leader is "angry
   with me for standing up for the American people."
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/trump-supporters-opponents-clash/3308
   083.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/trump-supporters-opponents-clash/3308083.html