Fistfights and protests at California GOP convention as Donald Trump speaks

The Republican candidates are speaking this weekend at the California Republican convention. Donald Trump was the first to speak Friday, his speech delayed by protesters who forced his motorcade to take a different route to the convention.

Updates

• 5:03 p.m. Anti-Trump protesters face police, try to block Trump from getting in
• 2:51 p.m. Trump makes case to GOP insiders amid chaotic protest scene
• 12:26 p.m. Protesters gather ahead of Trump speech
• 5:30 a.m. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and John Kasich to headline California GOP convention

5:40 p.m. How the Secret Service snuck Trump into the convention

The United States Secret Service had a problem Friday. Protesters had surrounded the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, the hotel hosting the California Republican Party convention, and there was no way for Donald Trump to get in.

The solution: Agents cut a fence separating busy Highway 101 from a ditch that ran alongside the back of the hotel.

They drove Trump onto the freeway. Conveniently, the right lane was barricaded off from the rest of traffic for road work. They let him out so he could climb through the hole in the fence, down into the ditch below.

The fence that the Secret Service had to cut for Donald Trump to get into the California Republican convention on Friday, April 29, 2016.

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Trump then climbed out of the ditch and walked in through the back door of the hotel. He began his speech nearly an hour late.

"That was not the easiest entrance I've ever made," Trump told the crowd of party leaders waiting in the hotel ballroom. "We went under a fence and through a fence. And oh boy, it felt like I was crossing the border, actually."

The fence that the Secret Service had to cut for Donald Trump to get into the California Republican convention on Friday, April 29, 2016.

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Trump called the experience "fun" and "different," and said he was asked to skip the event and return to Indiana but stayed because "we can't let these people down."

5:03 p.m. Anti-Trump protesters face police, try to block Trump from getting in

For the second day in a row, crowds of Californians protested against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Protesters surrounded the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame, trying to block Trump from getting in. They went face to face with police and even threw raw eggs.

Trump was let in through the back and said it wasn't his easiest entrance.

"Oh boy, it felt like I was crossing the border, actually," Trump said.

This was not a typical Trump rally — a room full of party insiders in a state that hasn't had a meaningful Republican primary in more than 50 years.

A relatively restrained Trump urged the GOP to unite behind him.

"We have to come together," he said. "We have to pick our nominee. We have to go out and do what we have to do. And I'm telling you, you are going to have an unbelievably good result in November."

But even without the party's unity, he said he can still win the White House.

"Would I win, can I win, without it? I think so," he said. "To be honest, I think so." 

He acknowledged that Republicans may have a tougher road to the White House than Democrats. 

"The Republican Party, in a presidential sense, doesn't win anymore," Trump said. "I'm different — because I'm gonna win states that nobody else can. And when I can focus on Hillary, as I say, crooked Hillary ... she'll go down easier than any of the people we just beat."

Polls suggest Trump holds a comfortable lead ahead of California's June 7 primary.

Update 2:51 p.m. Trump makes case to GOP insiders amid chaotic protest scene

Donald Trump is giving Republican power brokers a warning — he'll beat Hillary Clinton with or without them.

Trump tells the California Republican Party convention that the party needs to unify behind him as its nominee. But he adds that even if it doesn't, he thinks he can beat Hillary Clinton.

"Could I win without it?" Trump asks the crowd of powerbrokers and activists. "I think so because they're going to be voting for me" — and not the party.

Trump rarely speaks at state party events, but California is the big prize on June 7, as the primary series wraps up.

Meanwhile, Trump picked up two more delegates in Rhode Island, giving him 81 percent of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination and avoid a contested convention. Trump won the recent Rhode Island primary in a landslide.

— AP

Update 12:26 p.m. Protesters gather ahead of Trump speech

Protesters began to gather outside the California Republican Party convention in Burlingame well ahead of Donald Trump's lunchtime speech.

The crowd is blocking the street outside the hotel and some protesters are headed toward the nearby 101 freeway.

There have been some fistfights between protesters and Trump supporters.

Trump supporter Christopher Conway of Burlingame gets into a skirmish with protesters on Friday, April 29, 2016.

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Some protesters arrived early this morning, including Angelina Castro, a 34-year-old commercial insurance broker from Gilroy. She held a sign saying "Mr. Hate, Leave Our State."

"I have a 12-year-old daughter and she's very brown-colored in skin," Castro said. "I don't want her to feel like she lives in a country where she can't walk down the street being discriminated against or maybe even violated. I don't want harm to come to her."

Protesters at the California Republican convention on Friday, April 29, 2016.

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Capital Public Radio

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Castro said she hopes today's protest won't turn violent, unlike last night's protest at Trump's Orange County rally. 

"We're not here to condone violence," she said. We're really for peaceful protests. We're here on the sidewalk just exercising our rights. I think if things get a little out of hand, we'll probably decide that's our time to exit."

Monica Barraza came up from San Jose to protest against Trump. She's 40 and works in sales. Her sign: "We stand united - Cali won't be trumped."

"I've been in this country, and I'm of Mexican descent and I've never been to prison. I'm not a drug dealer," Barraza said. "So for him to kind of stereotype  he's running for president. What kind of leader does that show us?"

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California is poised to decide the Republican presidential nominee for the first time in more than 50 years. In 1964, the Golden State picked Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater over New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. It was an upset – and it delivered Goldwater the GOP nomination.

This year, California’s June 7 presidential primary could make or break Trump’s push to win a majority of pledged delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer.

5:30 a.m. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and John Kasich to headline California GOP convention

Presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich are expected to speak at this week’s California Republican Party Convention. The candidates are keeping a close eye on the Golden State’s June 7 primary, where Trump hopes to lock up the GOP nomination, and Cruz and Kasich both hope to block the front runner's path.

When they speak at the GOP convention south of San Francisco, PolitiFact California will be checking the accuracy of their claims. They'll also be live tweeting the scene on-site.

Follow them on Twitter @CAPolitiFact and follow PolitiFact California Reporter Chris Nichols @ChrisTheJourno at the convention. Also, Capital Public Radio’s Capitol Bureau Chief Ben Adler will be filing stories from the convention at capradio.org and tweeting @AdlerBen.

Here’s a look at the schedule for key speakers at the GOP convention:

• Donald Trump at 12 p.m. on Friday
• Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 7:30 p.m. on Friday
• Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 12 p.m. on Saturday
• Carly Fiorina at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday

PolitiFact, the national fact-checking website, has examined more than 130 statements by Trump and rated about three-quarters of them Mostly False, False or Pants On Fire. It’s the worst scorecard of any presidential candidate checked by PolitiFact since the website started in 2007.

Cruz has earned ratings on the false side of the Truth-O-Meter about two-thirds of the time. Kasich, by contrast, has scored True, Mostly True or Half True ratings nearly 70 percent of the time. The Texas senator chose Carly Fiorina, a former presidential candidate and one-time head of Hewlett-Packard, as his running mate on Wednesday.

PolitiFact California produced a Trump ‘Report Card’ article here that examines the front runner’s troubled relationship with the truth. We published a similar article on Cruz’s record here. Kasich’s PolitiFact scorecard is available here.

Despite his struggles with the truth, Trump solidified his frontrunner status with primary victories on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware. The other two remaining GOP candidates, Cruz and Kasich, finished far behind Trump in all of those contests. The New York billionaire’s strong wins followed a deal reached between Cruz and Kasich to work together to strategically block Trump in the remaining primaries.

Trump has relatively strong GOP support in California, according to results from a poll in early April.

Trump was the choice of 39 percent of the state’s likely GOP voters, while 32 percent supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and 18 percent backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich, according to a Field Poll released April 7.

The survey also found that 53 percent of likely GOP voters viewed Trump favorably while 43 percent hold an unfavorable opinion.

Voter ratings of Cruz are slightly more positive – 54 percent favorable and 39 percent unfavorable, the poll found.

Contact PolitiFact California on Twitter @CAPolitiFact or email us at PolitiFactCA@capradio.org with interesting or provocative claims made by presidential candidates while they’re stumping in California. They'll review them for a possible fact check.

Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how they select facts to check.

PolitiFact California looks at claims made by elected officials, candidates and groups and rates them as: True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False and Pants On Fire. Learn more about PolitiFact California.

For more fact-checks, go to PolitiFactCalifornia.com.

Series: California Counts

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