Washington:
Thousands of red-hatted protesters filled Washington streets on Saturday to demand “four more years” for Donald Trump’s presidency and to denounce, without the need of proof, the “massive fraud” they insist gave the election to Joe Biden.
Despite a stinging selection Friday at the US Supreme Court — which snubbed a final-ditch work by Trump backers to overturn Biden’s November 3 victory — these at the rally insisted their candidate had won and created their views loudly recognized.
Thousands gathered about Freedom Plaza, a couple of blocks from the White House, in a festive atmosphere.
It was a sizable crowd, but noticeably smaller sized than a comparable rally a month ago when 10,000 persons converged close to the White House to assistance Trump.
“We’re not gonna give up,” mentioned Luke Wilson, a sixty-some thing protester who had come all the way from the western state of Idaho.
“I believe there is a big injustice being done to the American people,” added Dell Quick, a standard at Trump’s political rallies. He brandished a flag defending gun rights.
Protesters presented no shortage of explanations for the November vote outcome, even although it has been affirmed by state election officials — a number of of them Republican — and by judges in a number of crucial states.
Every state has now certified Biden’s victory, providing the Democrat 306 votes in the Electoral College to Trump’s 232, with 270 essential for election. Electors are to formally cast their votes Monday.
But protesters insisted, as Trump has repeatedly accomplished, that there was widespread fraud in the election.
Some pointed to “foreign interference,” other folks to application that allegedly erased millions of votes for the president — but not these for other Republican candidates on the very same ballots.
Quick told AFP that “there’s no way possible” Biden was elected.
– ‘Stolen’ election –
Dozens of court situations alleging fraud or contesting the outcome have been decided — practically all in Biden’s favor, with some judges supplying stinging criticism of the lack of proof.
But that was not adequate for 47-year-old Darlene Denton, who wore a “Trump 2024” badge on her sweatshirt.
“Nobody wants to hear evidence, nobody wants to hear cases, everything just gets thrown out,” mentioned Denton, who had come from Tennessee to assistance a president she mentioned had offered “a voice to the people.”
Trump, in stark defiance of the clear outcome and of US tradition, has refused to concede to Biden.
“Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal,” he tweeted early Saturday. “Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them!”
Not extended afterward, his helicopter lifted off from the White House grounds and passed more than the crowd — lots of singing the US national anthem — as Trump headed to New York to attend the annual Army-Navy football game.
Among the protesters, members of the far-correct militia group the Proud Boys have been clearly visible — in their signature black-and-yellow outfits, some wearing bulletproof vests — and they typically drew cheers from other folks in the crowd.
Some blocks away, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement held their personal, significantly smaller sized, rally, chanting “Nazis out!”
Occasional violent clashes with counter-protesters throughout the November rally left a couple of persons with stab wounds. Police created some 20 arrests associated to that occasion.
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