Chattanooga Times Free Press

Trump helicopter buzzes rally

- BY ASHRAF KHALIL

WASHINGTON — Thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump returned to Washington on Saturday for rallies to back his efforts to overturn the election he lost to Joe Biden. They cheered as Trump flew overhead on the Marine One helicopter on his way out of town for the Army-Navy football game in West Point, New York.

The gatherings of mostly unmasked Trump loyalists were intended as a show of force two days before the Electoral College meets to formally elect Biden as the 46th president. Trump, whose term will end Jan. 20, refuses to concede, while repeating claims of fraud that have been rejected by state and federal courts, and Friday by the Supreme Court.

Election security experts say no credible evidence of fraud in the 2020 election exists. Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department did not uncover evidence of widespread voter fraud. Judges in multiple states have dismissed lawsuits by Trump’s legal team that alleged voting impropriet­ies.

Trump left the White House around midday for the trip to the U.S. Military Academy, and as Marine One passed over a rally on the National Mall, cheers went up.

Michael Flynn, the former

national security adviser recently pardoned by Trump, was speaking from the stage at the time.

“That’s pretty cool. Imagine just being able to jump in a helicopter and just go for a joy ride around Washington,” said Flynn, whose pardon wiped away his conviction for lying to the FBI during the Russia investigat­ion.

A pro-Trump demonstrat­ion last month drew 10,000 to 15,000 people to the capital and ended late in the evening with scattered clashes between Trump supporters and local activists near Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House.

On Saturday, police took more steps to keep the two sides apart, closing a wide swath of downtown to traffic and sealing off Black Lives Matter Plaza.

But while Saturday’s rallies, including one on Freedom Plaza downtown, were smaller than on Nov. 14, they drew a larger contingent of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group known to incite street violence. Some wore bullet-proof vests as they marched through town.

After the rallies ended, downtown Washington quickly devolved into crowds of hundreds of Proud Boys and combined forces of antifa and local Black activists. As dusk fell, they faced off on opposite sides of a street, with multiple lines of city police and federal Park Police, some in riot gear, keeping them separated.

One Proud Boy yelled out, “You cops can’t be everywhere!” The Proud Boys later dispersed.

 ?? AP PHOTO/LUIS M. ALVAREZ ?? Wearing Proud Boy gear, supporters of President Donald Trump attend a rally at Freedom Plaza on Saturday, in Washington.
AP PHOTO/LUIS M. ALVAREZ Wearing Proud Boy gear, supporters of President Donald Trump attend a rally at Freedom Plaza on Saturday, in Washington.

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