Trump backers turn out in D.C.
March peaceful during day; clashes break out after dark
WASHINGTON — Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered in Washington on Saturday to protest the results of the election, cheering as the president’s motorcade detoured and drove past on his way out of the city.
The president’s armored limousine did a slow loop around Freedom Plaza, a few blocks from the White House, on Saturday morning before heading west to the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.
Hours later, after nightfall in the nation’s capital, demonstrators supporting Trump clashed in the streets with counterprotesters. Videos posted on social media showed fistfights and people wielding projectiles and clubs. By early evening, police had arrested at least 10 people, including four on firearms charges, and there was at least one stabbing, The Washington Post reported.
A week after Democrat Joe Biden declared victory in the presidential election, demonstrations in support of Trump also took place in other cities.
A broad coalition of top government and industry officials has declared that the Nov. 3 election and the ballot counting afterward went smoothly with no more than the usual minor hiccups, calling it “the most secure in
American history,” repudiating Trump’s legal challenges to the contrary.
In Delray Beach, Fla., several hundred people marched, some carrying signs reading “Count every vote” and “We cannot live under a Marxist government.” In Lansing, Mich., protesters gathered at the state Capitol to hear speakers cast doubt on results that showed Biden winning the state by more than 140,000 votes.
In Arizona, Phoenix police estimated 1,500 people gathered outside the state Capitol to protest Biden’s narrow victory in the state.
The crowd in Washington was beginning to gather Saturday morning when cheers rang out as Trump’s limousine neared Freedom Plaza. People lined both sides of the street, some standing just a few feet from Trump’s vehicle. Others showed their enthusiasm by running along with the caravan.
They chanted “USA, USA” and “four more years,” and many carried American flags and signs to show their displeasure with the vote tally.
Among the speakers at the demonstration was a Georgia Republican newly elected to the U.S. House. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed support for QAnon conspiracy theories, urged people to march peacefully toward the Supreme Court.
MARCH TURNS TENSE
Saturday’s D.C. march was mostly peaceful before turning tense after dark. Multiple confrontations resulted as small groups of Trump supporters attempted to enter the area around Black Lives Matter Plaza, about a block from the White House, where several hundred anti-Trump demonstrators had gathered, according to reports.
Repeatedly, Trump supporters who approached the area were doused with water, and had their Make America Great Again hats and proTrump flags snatched and burned, amid cheers. As the night wore on, lines of multiple police officers worked to keep the two sides apart.
Videos posted on social media showed some demonstrators and counterdemonstrators trading shoves, punches and slaps.
A man with a bullhorn yelling “Get out of here!” was shoved and pushed to the ground by a man who
A former administration official, Sebastian Gorka, whipped up the crowd near the Supreme Court, saying, “We can win because he did win.” But, he added, “It’s going to be tough.”
was then surrounded by several people and shoved and punched until he fell face first to the pavement. Bloody and dazed, he was helped up and walked to a police officer.
The “Million MAGA March” was heavily promoted on social media, raising concerns that it could spark conflict with anti-Trump demonstrators, who have gathered near the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza for weeks.
CNN estimated the crowd at 8,000 to 10,000; others estimated the gathering in the tens of thousands. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted that “more than one MILLION” had shown up.
Television images showed that many attendees were not wearing masks, at a time when coronavirus cases in the nation’s capital and nearby are on the rise. Some carried signs deriding top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In preparation, police closed off wide swaths of downtown, where many stores and offices have been boarded up since Election Day. Chris Rodriguez, director of the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said the police were experienced at keeping the peace.
The issues that Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. With Biden leading Trump by wide margins in key battleground states, none of those issues have had any impact on the outcome of the election.
Trump’s campaign has also filed legal challenges complaining that their poll watchers were unable to scrutinize the voting process. Many of those challenges have been tossed out by judges, some within hours of being filed.
A former administration official, Sebastian Gorka, whipped up the crowd near the Supreme Court, saying, “We can win because he did win.” But, he added, “It’s going to be tough.”
STANCES ON ELECTORS
State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, have all said they would not intervene in the selection of Electoral College electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate’s victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.
The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden’s popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors.
Republican lawmakers in the four battleground states, however, have dismissed the idea, promoted by Trump allies, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” said Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, who says he’s been inundated with emails pleading for the Legislature to intervene. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”
“The Pennsylvania General Assembly does not have and will not have a hand in choosing the state’s presidential electors or in deciding the outcome of the presidential election,” top Republican legislative leaders, state Sen. Jake Corman and Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, wrote in an October op-ed. Their offices said Friday that they stand by the statement.
The Republican leader of Wisconsin’s Assembly, Robin Vos, has long dismissed the idea, and his spokesperson, Kit Beyer, said he stands by that position.
In Michigan, legislative leaders say any intervention would be against state law. Even though the GOP-controlled legislature is investigating the election, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told radio station WJR on Friday, “it is not the expectation that our analysis will result in any change in the outcome.”
HOUSE MAKEUP
Additionally, Republicans have captured at least 203 seats in the U.S. House, giving them enough wins to assure that Democrats will have fewer members next year.
The GOP crossed the mark Friday night when The Associated Press declared Republican Young Kim the winner against Democratic Rep. Gil Cisneros in Southern California.
Democrats have secured at least 219 seats in the House and could win a few others when more votes are counted. That ensures that they will hold the House for two more years but with a smaller majority.
In the House, Democrats went into Election Day with a 232-197 advantage, plus one independent and five open seats. It is possible that in the new Congress that convenes in January, they’ll have the smallest majority since two decades ago, when Republicans had just 221 seats.
Information for this article was contributed by Ashraf Khalil, Kevin Freking, Bob Christie, Nicholas Riccardi, Scott Bauer, David Eggert, Marc Levy, Alanna Durkin Richer, Deb Riechmann and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Clare Roth and Jordan Fabian of Bloomberg News.