--- title: Ted Cruz Is ‘Troubled’ by Donald Trump’s Campaign Rallies description: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he’s “troubled” by Donald Trump’s campaign rallies and said his Republican rival is at fault for the ensuing chaos. canonical: https://time.com/4256843/ted-cruz-troubled-donald-trump-rallies/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-13T16:11:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:49:43.305Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ted Cruz Is 'Troubled' by Donald Trump’s Campaign Rallies og:description: "Responsibility starts at the top" og:url: https://time.com/4256843/ted-cruz-troubled-donald-trump-rallies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3319d267e805cbb/69888abb2dce0141f59e82a5/ted-cruz-donald-trump-troubled.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Ted Cruz Holds Campaign Rally In Kansas City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Cruz Is 'Troubled' by Donald Trump’s Campaign Rallies twitter:description: "Responsibility starts at the top" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3319d267e805cbb/69888abb2dce0141f59e82a5/ted-cruz-donald-trump-troubled.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ted Cruz Is 'Troubled' by Donald Trump’s Campaign Rallies > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=332ec560-ec7a-4d88-bd76-23741d1f6ac9&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Raw: Watch Protester Rush Trump On-Stage [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Watch Protester Rush Trump On-Stage](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oJKYTV43.m3u8) (2:31)  _Published 2016-03-12_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 13, 2016 4:11 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 13, 2016 4:11 PM UTC Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he’s [“troubled” by Donald Trump’s campaign rallies](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press) and said his Republican rival is at fault for the ensuing chaos at the events. Cruz said Trump is responsible for setting the tone of his rallies, which have been [plagued by a string of violence by protesters](http://time.com/4256684/donald-trump-protests-help/?xid=homepage). “The protestors are behaving abusively and wrong. But, at the end of the day in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top,” Cruz said during a Saturday appearance on NBC’s _Meet the Press._ “I’m troubled by the rallies that Donald holds, where he asks all the people there to raise their hand and pledge their support to him,” Cruz added. A Trump supporter was charged with assault after he allegedly sucker-punched a protester in the face during a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday. The billionaire businessman had to [cancel another rally in Chicago](http://time.com/4256550/donald-trump-blames-thugs-cancelled-chicago-rally/) over the weekend after fights broke out between his supporters and protesters. ## Transcript The people that were there, that came there, that were invited there, thousands and thousands of people. They caused no problem. They were taunted. They were harassed by these other people. These other people, by the way, some represented Bernie, our communist friend. With Bernie, so he should really get up and say to his people, stop. Stop, not me, stop. They said, Mr. Trump should get up and, this morning, tell his people to be nice. My people are nice, folks. But what happened, it was very interesting. So what happened, and these were great people. These are people like yourselves. These were people that want to make America great again. That's all it is, [ APPLAUSE ] it's very simple. [ APPLAUSE ] And they were pouring into the arena, good arena, everything nice, and all of a sudden, a planned attack just came out of nowhere, printed by people that were professional people. If you look at the posters, they're all printed, they have a mark on them who made them. All done by a group. All very, very professional done. A disgrace if you want to know the truth. We cannot let our first amendment. We just can't. We can't let our first amendment rights be taken away from us folks. We can't let it happen. We have a right to speak. I mean we are law- abiding people. We're people that work very hard. We're people who built this country and made this country great, And we're all together. And we want to get along with everybody. But when they have organized professionally staged wise guys we've got to fight back. 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