CLEVELAND – Tensions ran high at a Donald Trump rally here the day after the Republican front-runner canceled a Chicago appearance amid violent protests, but Trump and his supporters weren’t discouraged, blaming his detractors for disturbances at his events.

In Chicago Friday night, Trump cancelled a rally that had hundreds of protesters clashing with supporters, leading to several violent skirmishes. In Ohio the next day, thousands turned out to see Trump at two events, and mostly they blamed the protesters, saying the candidate was not at fault.

Damian Ruggiero, 45, drove from Toledo to be at the Cleveland rally Saturday afternoon. He accused the protesters of disrupting private events, not exercising their constitutional rights.

“When they sneak in there and disrupt it and get their ass beat, they deserve it,” Ruggiero told RealClearPolitics. “And I’m not a violent person, but they deserve whatever they get because they came in under false pretenses. They weren’t invited. The people that are invited are supporters of his.”

Most Trump supporters here had a similar message: Not only were the protesters going beyond their First Amendment rights, they said, but they were infringing on the rights of his backers.

“I think it’s a joke that they did that,” Chris Hetzel, a 30-year-old from Akron, said of the protesters. “It’s stupid. It was just stupid. Like, you can’t go support somebody you want to be president anymore? They didn’t do that for Obama. Trump supporters don’t do that for Bernie Sanders or Hillary."

Protesters were present here Saturday as the business mogul campaigned in the state ahead of Tuesday’s winner-take-all primary. Trump addressed them several times, telling security to remove them and yelling at several of them for being Bernie Sanders supporters.

“Do we love our protesters?” he asked the crowd as the rally was interrupted by one person just moments after the candidate took the stage. “All right, get them out of here.”

“Yesterday, in Chicago, we had a little bit of a problem. We came, we were not allowed to exercise our First Amendment rights,” he said. “It just makes all of our friends and supporters more angry. We’re going to go to the polls on Tuesday and we’re going to [see a] resounding victory.”

Security was on high alert here — there was a heavy police presence in the parking lot outside the event, including officers on horseback. Lines stretched hundreds of feet down the parking lot because it took a long time to get everyone into the convention center: Each individual had to go through metal detectors and have bags and purses searched, and police were confiscating anything that could be used as a weapon, even plastic water bottles. Inside the event, officers lined the edges of the convention center floor and were walked among the supporters, occasionally to remove protesters.

Because of the tumult in Chicago, some Trump supporters said they second-guessed their decision to see him in Ohio, fearing more violence would erupt. Others, however, said they weren’t concerned. Ruggiero brought his 6- and 9-year-old sons with him and said he had no fear of violence.

One 46-year-old woman, who identified herself only as Wendy, said she thought about skipping the rally because of the Chicago incident, particularly because she planned to bring her 10- and 13-year-old children. But ultimately, she and her children and her father came anyway.

“It’s America, it’s our right to be here, it’s our right to speak and to listen,” she said. “It’s the First Amendment, we’re here to do that, so I’m not going to let some protesters in Chicago stop me from what I have the right to do."

Kevin McCarthy, 49, a financial adviser in Cleveland, said the police should have been more aggressive with protesters in Chicago, suggesting tear gas should have been an option. Asked if Trump encourages the violence by using heated rhetoric, McCarthy said the business mogul isn’t to blame.

“He doesn’t. He talks, he tells the truth,” McCarthy said. “People want to say that that causes something. There’s no reason to get violent and protest, and that’s what these people are doing. You’ve got your First Amendment right to speech. They can listen to him and if they don’t like it, they don’t vote for him. Very simple."

McCarthy added that he drove his old car to the event, rather than a newer one, “just in case there’s going to be people blocking the streets, so that if they did hit my car, I wouldn’t feel bad about running them over. I don’t want to wreck my new car."

Others agreed Trump bears no responsibility for violence at his rallies, both by protesters and supporters, despite the fact that he previously said he wanted to punch a protester in the face and told one crowd to “knock the crap out of them.”

“That’s rhetoric, though, in my opinion,” said Ken Muellauer, 47, from Cleveland. “That’s not literal, that’s rhetoric. People have to understand that."

Though things were substantially more muted in Ohio than in Chicago, there were several highly tense moments Saturday. At a Dayton event earlier in the day, Secret Service agents ran onto the stage to surround Trump after a protester leapt a barricade and charged the area. In Cleveland, the rally was interrupted only a few times by protesters – which has become common at all Trump gatherings. Those protesters gathered outside afterward, however, and were surrounded by supporters flooding out of the event.

As the protesters chanted, “Dump Trump” and “Black lives matter,” the supporters drowned them out with chants of “USA” and “All lives matter.” Several supporters got in the protesters’ faces, lobbing insults and derisive remarks. The protesters shot back, calling the Trump supporters racists. Police ultimately stepped in to break up the crowd of several dozen, which was shouting back and forth for nearly 20 minutes.

While only about a dozen protesters actually went inside the event, dozens of others lined the road outside the convention center. Charles Hambly, 65, said he drove from Lanesville, Ind., to protest Trump in Cleveland, where his son lives.

“I believe in people’s right to free speech, that’s why I’m out here and not inside,” Hambly said. “He has the right to say what he wants to say, but I have the right to demonstrate against it and point out to people that what they are believing is wrong and it’s dangerous for a society as a whole."

Tyler Stranden, a 21-year-old from Amherst, Ohio, who volunteers for the Trump campaign, admitted that the GOP front-runner often caters “to a lower common denominator” with his rhetoric.

“This pushes people to two different camps, pro-Trump and anti-Trump, and it’s pretty vitriolic,” Stranden said. Asked if that is a good thing, he called it “an inevitability” and said, “I don’t feel it’s really good or bad. I feel like it’s kind of a natural progression.”

As Stranden spoke to RCP before the event started, an announcement came over the loudspeaker at the event warning attendees: “If a protester starts demonstrating in the area around you, please, do not touch or harm the protester. This is a peaceful rally."