Ted Cruz said that Donald Trump’s campaign manager, who is accused of assaulting a reporter, committed “a fireable offense”.

Corey Lewandowski allegedly forcibly grabbed Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart News, at a Trump event last week and pushed her towards the ground, leaving bruises.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Cruz described the Trump campaign as reaching a new “height of disdain from a candidate for reporters and voters.”

He contrasted the “allegations of significant assault” to a controversy last year over Hillary Clinton’s campaign roping off reporters in a 4^th of July parade in New Hampshire. He noted: “What a bizarre world we are in where reporters are forced to ask the question: should political campaign staffers physically assault reporters?”

Cruz added, “At the end of the day, the responsibility for any campaign rests with the candidate.”

Bernie Sanders may be the first credible Jewish candidate for president in American history but, to the heavily Jewish Democratic electorate in Florida, he might as well be chopped liver, report the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe and Ben Jacobs.

Eight years after both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama rallied Democratic voters with the historic nature of their candidacies – Clinton as the first credible female candidate for president and Obama as the first credible African American – the historic nature of Sanders’ candidacy is drawing a shrug from his co-religionists in the first state with a significant Jewish population to hold a primary. Florida goes to the polls along with Ohio and other key states on Tuesday.

Even though Jewish voters are disproportionately Democratic and almost 70% of Jewish votes nationally went to Obama when he won re-election in 2012, Sanders has not campaigned in Palm Beach County – home to more than a third of Florida’s estimated 640,000 Jews – once.

Although he did pay a brief visit to Miami, about an hour south of Palm Beach County, he has ignored this vote-rich area where a disproportionate number of residents are – like the Vermont senator – elderly Jews originally from New York City.

As one voter there, retired hotel investor Michael Slosberg, 77, who moved to West Palm Beach from New York eight years ago, said of Sanders: “We haven’t seen the guy or heard much from him. We know where Hillary stands and I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t win Florida.”

John Kasich made his final appeal to Ohio voters on Monday night to a hometown crowd at Westerville Central High School, in an appearance that (finally) felt more like a pep rally than a town hall.

Senator Rob Portman, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Karen Kasich all served as warm-up acts for the Ohio governor whose long-shot candidacy may have picked up just enough steam over the last few weeks to deny front runner Donald Trump a clear shot at a majority of delegates and thus assure him the nomination – if Kasich can pull out a win in his home state.

True to form, Kasich eschewed outright insults down to the last, instead exhorting the crowd to remember that the country and the world is watching the race in Ohio (and that their children have been watching the fractious debates and, more recently, the violence at some other, unnamed candidate’s rallies).

“We don’t fix America by demonizing people” he said. “We fix America by bringing people together.”

In a normal election cycle, that might have sounded more banal than the average political pablum. But in the 2016 Republican race, Kasich’s message almost sounds revolutionary – and it brought cheers and applause from his audience.

Hundreds of Chicago factory workers who are fighting to keep their jobs in the US received a visit from Hillary Clinton, the eve of a tightly contested Democratic primary in Illinois, reports the Guardian’s Jamiles Lartey. “It is imperative that we do more to keep jobs here, and we do more to attract jobs to places like Chicago, well, really across our country,” Clinton said after the meeting.

In the summer, Mondelēz International, the multinational food and beverages group and owner of Nabisco, announced that the company’s factory on Chicago’s South Side would be cutting 600 jobs and transferring the production to new facilities in Monterrey and Salinas, Mexico. “I wanted to come by and talk with some of the workers and their representatives to … figure out how we can stop this,” Clinton said.

According to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ Union, who represent many of the plant’s employees, nearly 70% of the workers affected are black and Latino. The first of the workers to be laid off received notice in January, leaving others in the plant on edge that they will be next.

“They don’t treat us like they used to treat us. They treat us like we’re nobody,” said Cristina Ramirez, a longtime employee in the factory. Ramirez said that many people in the plant feel like they are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. “We’re just going to keep doing the best we can do as long as we can,” Ramirez said.

Chris Christie sacrificed his plum position in the Republican establishment when he endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy for the party’s presidential nomination, and in return he has received… a public shaming from the candidate himself.

At a rally for Trump in Columbus on the eve of the Ohio primary, Trump slammed Christie by proxy when he took a shot at Ohio governor John Kasich’s frequent absence from his home state during the campaign.

“Your governor is absentee,” Trump said. “He goes to New Hampshire, he’s living in New Hampshire. Living! Where’s Chris, is Chris around? Even more than Chris Christie – he was there, right? Even more!”

Trump then turned to Christie. “I hated to do that, but I had to make my point,” he said.

Christie has been frequently lambasted for his absence from New Jersey, both during his now-late presidential campaign and in the weeks after its suspension, during which he has traveled as a campaign surrogate for Trump, even appearing as a hostage introductory speaker during Trump’s Super Tuesday victory speech.

Bonus material from the #Bam4Ham concert: Barack Obama queuing up prompts for a freestyle rap by Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator/star of Hamilton, the Most Important Thing On Broadway.

It is telling that Bernie Sanders has been boasting to pre-election crowds all year that if they turn out to the polling station in big enough numbers the next day they will win the state, reports the Guardian’s Dan Roberts.

That was certainly the message this morning in Akron, Ohio, where the opinion polls show him almost level with Clinton. Here in Charlotte, North Carolina, though, the senator is in more realistic mood this afternoon – especially given his recent experience in all the other southern states to have already voted. Instead, he says if supporters here and in the other four states voting tomorrow turn out in big numbers, the campaign is certain to add to its list of recent victories.

What goes unspoken is that in North Carolina, at least, Bernie’s presence is more about limiting Clinton’s delegate gains than joining that list.

Ted Cruz plays well in Peoria . . .and across the rest of the state of Illinois, reports the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs.

On his third stop of the day in a last minute barnstorm across Illinois, Cruz has met warm crowds so far as he desperately tries pick up delegates in the Land of Lincoln. Most of Illinois’s delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis by congressional district, and the Texas senator is hopscotching the state to hit every media market and maximize his chances of getting close to the magic number of 1,237 needed to clinch the Republican nomination.

A Illinois Republican operative told the Guardian that Cruz’s crowd in suburban Chicago on early Monday afternoon was similar to large crowds that Rick Santorum drew during his 2012 race as the former Pennsylvania senator desperately tried to catch up to Mitt Romney. The operative said that gerrymandered Republican districts in suburban Chicago, Cruz had to be considered the favorite right now as he had vacuumed up voters who would once supported Marco Rubio before the Florida senator’s collapse.

Cruz though is not campaigning inside Chicago city limits, avoiding the city where massive protests derailed a scheduled rally by Donald Trump on Friday night. However, the Texas senator is making the city’s continued political ills a talking point as he has repeatedly blasted Donald Trump’s past donations to embattled Democratic mayor Rahm Emanuel as well as to the Cook Country Democratic Party.

Current polls of Illinois’s Republican primary show Trump with a slim statewide lead over Cruz.

Hillary Clinton promised a group of mothers who lost their children to gun violence that if elected president she would do “everything” within her power to stem the tide of premature deaths on Chicago’s streets, reports the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino in Chicago:

“Let me pay tribute and express gratitude to all the families who created this memorial so that people don’t forget,” Clinton during an emotional stop at the Kids Off The Block Memorial in Chicago. “I agree with you, it should not be here.”

Clinton addressed the mothers under a tarp covering the memorial, where more than 500 stones are on display – each representing a local child who lost their life to gun violence. The youngest was just one year old.

“Every mother you see here worked so hard to protect her child and yet we allow this epidemic of gun violence to stalk our streets, our playgrounds, our buses, our schools our churches,” Clinton said, the riser of stones behind her.

Clinton told the mothers that she will “increase and intensify” to push for more effective gun control while also working to attack the issue from the other side by removing economic barriers and creating more educational and professional opportunities for young people.

“I pledge to you in front of this heartbreaking memorial that as mother and grandmother and as a president if i’m so fortunate to be a president,” she said. “I will work every day to save and protect the lives of our children.”

Clinton was joined at the memorial by the reverend Jesse Jackson, who lead the attendants in a prayer.

Interviews with former employees of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump point to detail-obsessed boss with little regard for diversity or low-level staff, reports the Guardian’s Oliver Laugland.

Randal Pinkett’s first day in the Trump Organization was one he would never forget. Summoned to the offices in Trump Tower, the billionaire’s garish midtown skyscraper, Pinkett entered the room as Trump thumbed through a stack of the day’s newspapers and magazines.

It was 2005, and having just won season four of The Apprentice, the only African American to do so in the show’s history, Pinkett expected Trump’s attention. But as the two spoke about his hard-won contract with the company, it was clear Trump really only cared about one thing: himself.

He broke off from the conversation intermittently, pulling a paper from the pile, carefully scanning each page with a yellow Post-It note stuck to it and disregarding the rest – an aide had already combed through the publications to mark out every article that mentioned the boss. This was his morning routine.

“I think that just speaks volumes,” Pinkett said in an interview. “Donald loves Donald.

“His identity is wrapped around being a winner. If you challenge him, or if he’s put into a losing position, now you begin to take Donald out of his comfort zone.”

In interviews with 12 former employees of Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination and now one of the most controversial figures in modern American politics, none disagreed with Pinkett’s frank assessment of his former boss’s inflated sense of self.

Live: Donald Trump speaks in Vienna, Ohio.

A pro-Donald Trump protester interrupted Ted Cruz’s rally in Peoria, Illinois shouting “go back to Canada” and waving a Trump sign.

Cruz responded to his shouts by saying “one difference between this and a Donald Trump rally is I’m not asking anyone to punch you in the face” as security eventually appeared to lead the protester away. It likely marked the first time a supporter of Donald Trump showed up to protest at a Cruz rally.

Although Trump rallies have been beset by protests and violence in recent weeks, culminating with a Trump event in Chicago that was cancelled on Friday, Cruz’s events have been peaceful and in line with the norms of American presidential elections.

Although Cruz was interrupted by an animal rights protester at earlier event on Monday and pro-immigration reform protests have showed up at his events in the past, the interruption of his event represented a sea change in the presidential campaign.

Trump, who has claimed without evidence that many of the protesters at his events had been sent by campaign of Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders and has threatened to send his supporters to disrupt campaign events held by the Vermont senator.

The White House is streaming a live performance of the blockbuster musical Hamilton from the East Room. For those of you who haven’t sold your kidneys in order to purchase a ticket to the must-see musical (#SorryNotSorry), this might be the closest you get.

Just you wait.

Sarah Palin has weighed into the controversy over violence at Donald Trump rallies, dismissing it as “petty punk-ass little thuggery stuff” and blaming the media for distorted coverage, reports the Guardian’s David Smith in Tampa, Florida:

The former Alaska governor, whose husband Todd is in intensive care after a snow machine accident, made a surprise appearance at Trump “town hall” event in Tampa, Florida, where again tensions ran high.

“What we don’t have time for is all that petty punk-ass little thuggery stuff that’s been going on with those quote-unquote protesters who are doing nothing but wasting your time and trying to take away your first amendment rights, your rights to assemble peacefully,” Palin told the crowd.

“And the media being on the thugs’ side – what the heck are you guys thinking, media? It doesn’t make sense! Well, you all get it. I think the media and too many of the other candidates are underestimating the wisdom of the people. You’re smart, energized, optimistic, positive and that’s why you’re here today and I thank you for spending your time here today.”

Trump stands accused of encouraging political violence at his campaign events. Last Friday a rally in Chicago was cancelled and descended into chaos.

As the billionaire businessman addressed a predominantly white crowd in Tampa, a black protester jumped on a chair and ripped two Trump placards while shouting and waving her arms. The woman was escorted by police and security guards amid loud booing but a female Trump supporter confronted her, jabbing an angry finger and shouting. The two women squared up for a moment, their faces close to each other, before the demonstrator was led away.

A white female protester was ejected in the same incident. Soon after a young white man wearing spectacles who rushed towards the stage where the Republican frontrunner was speaking was also grabbed and taken away as the crowd threatened to turn on him.

Before the event, around 30 demonstrators marched past the queue of Trump supporters waiting outside the Tampa Convention Center, waving placards and singing: “Build a wall / Build it high / Let’s put Donald Trump inside!”

Some of the candidate’s supporters made obscene gestures and a group began chanting: “USA! USA!” The demonstrators joined in the chant too.

Kofi Hunt, 33, a community organizer, said: “We’re non-violent. We’ve organized marshals to keep a distance between them us. They’re telling us to ‘get a job’. There’s only 30 of us here. There’s hundreds of them here.”

“Donald Trump is saying a lot of hateful things and trying to divide Americans. He is going to hear from us every time he comes to Tampa Bay with his hateful rhetoric.”

Trump supporter Anthony Arnold, 45, a publisher, was unimpressed. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It’s nonsense. They’re not doing anything, they’re not trying to change anybody’s mind. They’re just trading off ignorance.”

At the event Trump received the endorsement of Florida attorney general Pam Bondi. He reiterated his pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border, telling his noisily enthusiastic supporters: “You watch and that wall will go up like magic.”

Live: Bernie Sanders speaks in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This made the Guardian’s Dan Roberts chuckle, for obvious reasons:

“Love Trumps hate,” Hillary Clinton told group of Latino activists in Chicago on the eve of the Illinois primary, reports the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino from Chicago:

Beginning her day Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, which has a strong Mexican-American community, Clinton implored the group to mobilize their community to vote against Donald Trump, who she did not mention by name.

“Do you know how to stop the hate?,” Clinton said at The Resurrection Project at La Casa, which helps Mexican-Americans become US citizens. “In a democracy you make your voice heard by becoming a citizen and voting on election day to make sure your voice is heard,” Clinton said. “Yes, there are voices of bigotry and hatred and prejudice and division.”

Clinton was joined by congressman Luis Gutierrez and labor leader Dolores Huerta.

“I know you have work to do,” Clinton told the group. “I don’t want to interrupt the work, but please tell everyone to come out and vote tomorrow, we have to have a big vote tomorrow that can send a strong message that love trumps hate.”

Donald Trump’s harsh rhetoric against Latinos, and campaign promise to build a wall along the US’s southern border paid for by Mexico, has mobilized the Latino and Hispanic communities to mobilize in opposition.

“We are going to make sure there are 1 million new immigrant citizens before November of 2016,” Gutierrez said while introducing Clinton.

Clinton and her opponent Bernie Sanders are locked in a tight battle here, with Clinton’s campaign concerned the Senator has made inroads. Sanders has attacked the city’s embattled mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, a former aide in the Clinton administration.

“Hillary Clinton proudly lists mayor Rahm Emanuel as one of her leading mayoral endorsers,” Sanders said told reporters in Chicago on Saturday. “Well let me be as clear as I can be: Based on his disastrous record as mayor of the city of Chicago, I do not want mayor Emanuel’s endorsement if I win the Democratic nomination.”

After meeting with the activists, Clinton headed to a rally at a union hall in Chicago’s Near West Side. She is scheduled to campaign in Chicago and Springfield before making her way to North Carolina for an evening rally.

Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s surprise appearance at a Donald Trump rally in Tampa, Florida, wasn’t streaming when she walked onstage, but video of the maverick-y conservative superstar has finally appeared online.

Palin was previously announced by the Trump campaign to be en route to Alaska, where her husband has been hospitalized following a “bad snow machine accident.”

“What we don’t have time for is all that petty punk-ass little thuggery stuff that’s been going on with those quote-unquote protesters who are doing nothing but wasting your time and trying to take away your first amendment rights, your rights to assemble peacefully,” Palin said.

“And the media being on the thugs’ side – what the heck are you guys thinking, media?” Palin continued. “It doesn’t make sense! Well, you all get it. I think the media and too many other candidates are underestimating the wisdom of the people. You’re smart, energized, optimistic, positive and that’s why you’re here today and I thank you for spending your time here today, because it is time, we have all recognized the majority of americans have recognized Republicans, independents, good old blue=dog Reagan Democrats out there ! we have all recognized, we need a revolution!”

“It is time to get rid of the status quo. The status quo has to go, right? We have needed a revolution, and we found our revolutionary. Donald Trump is that revolutionary!”

Fox News politics producer Nick Kalman spotted a pair of Donald Trump supporters sporting armbands at a campaign event in Tampa, Florida, this afternoon.

Florida attorney general Pam Bondi has endorsed billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination in a campaign event in Tampa, Florida.

Bondi, a former prosecutor and Fox News legal analyst, was the lead attorney general in Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, the landmark Supreme Court case that unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare).

Yes, pretty good:

The original video of the Trump rally interrupted by a protester at the weekend is here.

Brandon Stanton, creator of the popular blog Humans of New York (HONY), released an open letter today criticizing Donald Trump, writes the Guardian’s Ellen Brait:

HONY, which posts photos of everyday people Stanton interviews on the street, has a loyal following including President Obama, who has commented on some posts in the past. Stanton even photographed Obama for his blog in February 2015.

“I am a journalist, Mr. Trump,” Stanton wrote. “And over the last two years I have conducted extensive interviews with hundreds of Muslims, chosen at random, on the streets of Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across seven different countries. And I can confirm – the hateful one is you.”

The post had been shared over 250,000 times on Facebook and received almost 20,000 comments.

Stanton said Trump is “a man who has encouraged prejudice and violence in the pursuit of personal power”. He listed actions of the Republican candidate that moved him to speak out against him, including: retweeting “racist images”, retweeting “racist lies”, taking 48 hours to disavow white supremacy, encouraging violent behavior, advocating “the use of torture and the murder of terrorists’ families”, and comparing refugees to “snakes”.

The county sheriff in North Carolina where a protester was sucker-punched at a Donald Trump rally last week is considering charges – against Trump, NBC news reports:

The rally witnessed multiple protests, with Trump on stage jeering the protesters along with the crowd. Read more about it here:

Here comes that bus – and here comes Romney –

The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui is with Marco Rubio in Melbourne, Florida. The Rubio campaign faces an existential test in the state tomorrow. Rubio has challenged supporters to defy the pollsters and shock the world.

So far Rubio has won Minnesota, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC.

Excitement at the Cruz event–

Mitt Romney is getting ready to appear with John Kasich in North Canton, Ohio. Our Megan Carpentier is at the scene:

Not pictured, Megan writes: the country musical stylings of Darius Rucker, aka Hootie, on the stereo.

Texas senator Ted Cruz has just taken the stage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, outside Chicago. Our Ben Jacobs is in the hall. You can watch it live here:

The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs gets ready to see Ted Cruz outside of Chicago. (Bruce Redden is Cruz’s body man / personal assistant.)

A new ad from Our Principles Pac, an anti-Trump outfit, seeks to use things he has said about women against him.

Things like “You have to treat them like shit.” A Trump friend quoted him as saying so about women in a 1992 issue of New York magazine.

A new Monmouth University poll of Ohio voters has Clinton up on the Democratic side 54-40 over Bernie Sanders. But he overcame a 20-point deficit in the polling averages to win Michigan, so effectively he’s ahead.

The poll has Kasich topping Trump in Ohio on the Republican side, as do most new polls in the state. For those following along at home, Ohio is winner-take-all on the Republican side with 66 delegates to award.

Here are two weekend moments of note from the campaign trail that you may have missed:

Hillary Clinton’s voice has been the subject of much – mostly male – commentary over the years, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:

“She shouts,” journalist Bob Woodward mused recently on MSNBC. Clinton’s opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, is known for raising his voice in moments of passion. But when Clinton does it, she’s knocked by critics.

On Monday, in her hometown of Chicago, Clinton hit back.

“I’m going to fight for American labor,” Clinton said, her voice rising to the cheers of plumbers union members.

Then she paused, softening her voice and slowing her cadence.

“I’m always being told that when I talk to you I should talk in a very calm and measured voice, and I should not get carried away with my intense feelings about what is going on in the country, so I do try to remind myself of that and I try to lower the volume when I remember.”

‘But I’m so worried about our country,” she said, her voice growing louder and more forceful. “And what can happen if we don’t band together and elect a president that can represent all of America.”

The Guardian’s Megan Carpentier reports:

At a town hall at Brilex Industries in Youngstown, Ohio – and with Bernie Sanders hosting another event at a more traditional event space down the street – John Kasich pulled onto the factory floor in his campaign bus, speakers blaring U2’s Beautiful Day to applause from a variety of factory workers, supporters in shirts and ties and at least one contingent of college students, bused in to see the inner workings of democracy up close.

“The first priority is jobs,” he told the crowd. “And the second priority is … jobs,” he added.

“The third priority is… well, I guess maybe you know.”

“Jobs!” shouted the crowd.

Nobody at Kasich’s events has to wait in line for hours to see the candidate running on the platform of human decency, jobs for working class people and tax cuts for small businesses to help them create said jobs – but, as the weekend’s progressed, his crowds have been increasingly standing room only (albeit in much smaller spaces).

The questions remains whether the popular governor can surge pass the showman Donald Trump in the Buckeye state: his supporters, and those who want to see the Trump momentum slowed, certainly hope so. But it’s one thing to fill a factory floor on a Monday morning; it’s another to fill an airplane hangar on Monday night, if those people get up the following morning and head to the polls.

Guardian Washington correspondent David Smith films a Trump protest – and counter-protest – outside a rally in Tampa, Florida:

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino watches as Hillary Clinton takes the stage in Chicago at a plumbers union event:

Watch the event live here:

The Trump camp has canceled an event today in Florida with Sarah Palin.

Sorry, Florida.

Trump is now speaking in Hickory, North Carolina – you can watch it on this live stream.

He brought New Jersey Governor Chris Christie along. They’re planted comfortably in deep white armchairs. Christie is interviewing Trump about how he would apply his business skills to the job of president.

Coming to your TV this Wednesday: Hillary Clinton on Broad City, Comedy Central’s hit stoner sitcom. Nigel Smith reports:

Its third season has already featured Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Williams. For the fifth episode, airing on Wednesday, Broad City’s stars and creators, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, enlisted the help of their biggest guest yet: Hillary Clinton. …

The episode in question, which also co-stars Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon and Mash’s Alan Alda, finds Ilana’s character joining Clinton’s campaign. As for how they landed her, Glazer and Jacobson said they enlisted Poehler’s assistance, as well as an executive on the series who knew someone on the campaign.

“It was really hard to believe it would even happen,” said Glazer. “I honestly would have understood. She’s running shit.”

While we keep an eye on Cruz and Kasich, you can keep an eye, if you like, on Donald Trump, about to speak in Hickory, North Carolina, one of five states voting Tuesday:

Update: And when we say “about to speak,” we mean – maybe, sometime before noon:

Romney is not at Kasich’s event in Youngstown. The former governor plans to join the current governor at his next stop.

But Ohio senator Rob Portman, who has endorsed Kasich, is there – and look who else just rolled in:

Here’s how some of the Guardian politics team is deployed today: Sabrina Siddiqui is in Florida with Marco Rubio; Lauren Gambino is in Chicago with Hillary Clinton; Ben Jacobs is with Ted Cruz in Illinois; David Smith is with Donald Trump in Florida; Megan Carpentier is in Ohio with John Kasich and Dan Roberts is crossing states with Bernie Sanders.

Cruz is keeping up with his attack on Trump for having written checks to Democrats, including a couple local political celebrities (Emanuel is in the Chicago mayor’s office. Blagojevich is in the Englewood federal prison in Colorado).

“Marco Rubio is trying to steal my girlfriend.” So claimed a protester – does this guy qualify as a protester? – at a rally in Florida Sunday:

Rubio’s comeback crack is pretty good: “I didn’t even win New Hampshire!”

The Guardian’s Megan Carpentier is in Youngstown, Ohio, for a John Kasich rally this morning. Mitt Romney is campaigning with Kasich today in an effort to help him clear the Trump hurdle in his home state.

Here’s a bit of media news that has had wide overlap in the last week with campaign news: Michelle Fields, the reporter who filed a criminal complaint against Trump’s campaign manager last week, has resigned from Breitbart News, saying the site had not “adequately stood by” her in the affair.

The site’s editor-at-large also resigned, BuzzFeed reported.

Fields accused Trump aide Corey Lewandowski of grabbing her and yanking her after a news conference in Florida last week. Breitbart, seen as very sympathetic to Trump, suspended one reporter who challenged Fields’ account, but also published a tendentious piece questioning whether Lewandowski was responsible.

As a parting gift to the editor who left, Ben Shapiro, the site published and then unpublished a piece including a picture of Shapiro inside a gold star. Shapiro is Jewish.

Also read:

Hello and welcome to our continuing live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. New numbers out this morning show a neck-and-neck race in Ohio between Donald Trump and John Kasich – and the state looks competitive on the Democratic side too.

Enter Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, who will hit the campaign trail in the Buckeye State today on behalf of Kasich, the home-state governor.

Ohio is one of five states to vote on Tuesday at a crucial stage of the primary season in which Bernie Sanders supporters hope he can build on his Michigan win last week and Trump supporters hope their candidate can effectively put the race away.

Trump appears to be far ahead of his rivals in Florida, which will award 99 GOP delegates on a winner-take-all basis. New numbers today give him a 46%-22% lead over Senator Marco Rubio, who could be headed out of the race if he can’t win his own state.

The weekend was defined by tense scenes at Trump rallies in the midwest, with violent clashes in Chicago on Friday, arrests and pepper spray in Kansas City on Saturday and a tense but non-violent scene in Cleveland on Sunday.

Our reportage on those incidents is below. Trump seemed to blame the violence on Sanders with a tweet on Sunday saying: “Sanders is lying when he says his disrupters aren’t told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!”

Sanders and Hillary Clinton addressed the violence at a forum on Sunday in Columbus. Sanders called Trump a “pathological liar” and Hillary Clinton called him a “political arsonist”.

Numbers

See the latest polling of the Democratic race in states voting tomorrow here.

Is Trump going to make it?

Trump rally tensions

Trump refused to accept responsibility for any violence over the weekend, arguing that his decision to cancel the rally in Chicago had prevented injuries, despite the scuffles that broke out after the announcement was made.

“We have great rallies, we have by far the biggest rallies,” Trump told CNN on Sunday. “And out of that, we’ve had very little problem.

“I’m just a messenger,” Trump added. “There is a lot of anger in this country, and it’s anger at incompetence, it’s anger at the border, it’s anger at trade deals that are so bad for us, that all our jobs are being taken out of the country.”

In the designated protest area, a group of young people suddenly started yelling “Dump Trump!” at passersby, who sometimes responded with insults.

“Fuck you, you commie! Go back to Africa!” yelled one man at the most vociferous protester – who didn’t exactly appear to be of recent African extraction.

Lighter fare

Larry David popped up as Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live:

A cozy moment at former first lady Nancy Reagan’s funeral on Friday: