July 01, 2016 02:16 PM UTC

Trumpalooza! Protests Rock Downtown Denver as Trump Speaks

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: CBS4’s Shaun Boyd, ouch–Trump couldn’t even fill the room:

.@realDonaldTrump says it’s always packed house for him.. not this time. pic.twitter.com/bTHUQv9F51

— Shaun Boyd (@CBS4Shaun) July 1, 2016

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UPDATE: A pro-Trump rally at 1PM on the West Steps of the Colorado Capitol appears to have fizzled:

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Lots of coverage coming in from the scene around the Western Conservative Summit at the Colorado Convention Center today, where GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump addressed the conservative faithful while protesters and Trump supporters mixed it up outside. CBS4 Denver:

Law enforcement worked to control protesters in downtown Denver outside a conference featuring Donald Trump on Friday. Three people were arrested after clashes between protesters and supporters.

Protesters began gathering outside the Colorado Convention Center early Friday morning, where Donald Trump was scheduled to speak at 10:30 a.m. at the Western Conservative Summit.

By 11 a.m., protesters were seen fighting at 14th Street and California Street. Three people were arrested and SWAT teams from the Denver Police Department and the Denver Sheriff Department moved in to the crowd.

The Denver Post’s Jesse Paul reports:

Outside of the scuffle, Trump supporters and a much larger contingent of opponents mostly kept to fierce yelling matches, which included name calling and profanity, and that were monitored by police.

Carlee Flanagan, a 19-year-old University of Colorado Boulder student, arrived with her mother and two 14-year-old sisters before 9 a.m. She held a DUMP TRUMP poster decorated with poop emojis.

“I think we all feel that Donald Trump is an embarrassment to our country,” Flanagan said. “He’s a racist. He’s a bigot.”

Inside, the Post’s John Frank reports on Trump’s “rambling” speech–an attempt to smooth over rocky relations with Colorado Republicans who rejected Trump during the delegate hunt:

Trump opened his rambling 50-minute speech addressing the elephant in the room: his blistering attack on the state’s Republican Party’s delegate selection process. But he didn’t retreat from his criticism, referencing his loss in Colorado as many as four times.

“It’s alright,” he told a half empty ballroom at the Denver Convention Center. “It worked out. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Here we are.”

…Earlier in the day, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin eviscerated the “never Trump” crowd plotting against the billionaire businessman. “I just call them Republicans Against Trump, or RAT for short,” she said to big applause. [Pols emphasis]

Did Trump with special guest star Sarah Palin manage to placate Colorado’s party faithful? Was Trump’s appearance at the Western Conservative Summit worth the negative spectacle of protests outside, which is now an indelible part of the story?

“In the end, it doesn’t matter. Here we are.”

That actually may be the whole answer right there.