CHICAGO — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday night blamed the campaign of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for disrupting a March rally at the UIC Pavilion.
Clinton did not respond to Trump's claim during the third and final presidential debate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, which came in response to a question from Fox News anchor Chris Wallace about allegations of sexual harassment by the New York businessman.
Trump apparently was referencing video investigations by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas Action. Those videos appeared to capture Democratic operatives boasting about hiring protesters to disrupt Trump's rallies and incite violence.
Two Democratic operatives, including Robert Creamer, the husband of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), have resigned in the wake of the videos.
In a statement, Creamer did not admit any wrongdoing and said he was quitting in order to avoid becoming a distraction to the campaign. He also dismissed O'Keefe as a "notorious right wing blogger" and said none of the actions discussed in the video took place.
During the Wednesday night debate, Trump said, "I was wondering what happened with my rally in Chicago and other rallies where we had such violence."
"She's the one, and Obama, that caused the violence. They hired people. They paid them $1,500, and they're on tape saying be violent," he said.
Trump said it was a "criminal act" having "people to go out and start fistfights and start violence and I'll tell you what: In particular in Chicago, people were hurt, and people could have been killed in that riot."
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