WASHINGTON (AP) – Several thousand protesters applauded President Donald Trump and his baseless allegations of electoral fraud at a rally near the White House on Wednesday before Congressional voting to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“We are not going to allow them to silence their voices,” Trump told protesters, who lined up before sunrise to gain a privileged position to listen to the president.
The crowd cheered when he said, “We are going to stop the theft.” This has been the rallying cry of the protests against the election results.
Lou Murray, a Boston life insurance salesman, said he and many others still hoped that Congress and Vice President Mike Pence would not certify the Electoral College. “I hope Vice President Pence has the courage today, and I hope that any politician who thinks he has a future will show the courage to stand up and do what is right,” said Murray.
Pence has no way of avoiding Biden’s certification as the next president.
From Ellipse to the south of the White House, protesters planned to march to the Capitol before the vote. Trump said he would be with them.
At the Capitol, Tim Teller of West Sacramento, California, listened on his phone as Trump spoke. “I want to be able to tell my kids that I did everything I could,” he said.
The Capitol crowd shouted, “We want Trump.”
About an hour before Trump spoke, there were long, dense lines at security checkpoints near the White House. At the Lincoln Memorial, dozens of Trump supporters were on the steps with big Trump flags.
Nirav Peterson, who flew from Seattle to attend the rally, said there would be a wave of anger and activism if Trump does not fulfill another mandate and said that Republicans who do not support him must face the main challenges.
“People are angry. This will not end, ”said Peterson, as he filmed the large crowd gathered beyond the steel barriers at the foot of the Washington Monument. “You have a huge portion of people who are not going to take it anymore.”
Like many others, Peterson did not wear a mask. She said she is opposed to the pandemic outages and does not believe anyone died of COVID-19. More than 350,000 people died of the virus in the USA
Several prominent Trump supporters were expected to attend the protest events, which began on Tuesday with a rally at Freedom Plaza near the White House. They include Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Trump’s former ally Roger Stone, who received the president’s pardon.
When temperatures dropped to 40 degrees Celsius on Tuesday night and constant rain swept the streets, hundreds of protesters remained at Freedom Plaza.
“I’m just here to support the president,” said David Wideman, a 45-year-old firefighter who traveled from Memphis, Tennessee. Wideman acknowledged that he was “confused” by a series of losses by Trump’s legal team in his attempt to reverse the election results and did not know what options Trump had left.
“I’m not sure what he can do at this point, but I want to hear what he has to say,” said Wideman.
Trump tweeted his support for the protesters: “Washington is being flooded with people who don’t want to see an electoral victory stolen by encouraged radical Left Democrats. Our country is fed up, they can’t take it anymore! We heard you (and we love you) in the Oval Office. “
In a tweet on Tuesday night, Trump asked Democrats and Republican colleagues to look at “thousands of people arriving in DC”. In another tweet, he warned that antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups, which Trump said he wants to declare a terrorist organization, should stay outside Washington.
The demonstrations have prompted local authorities and security forces to prepare for possible violent clashes in the streets. Many companies in central Washington have boarded up windows, fearing that the protest could turn into the unrest seen in May and June, when dozens of companies were vandalized.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser called on National Guard troops to help strengthen the city’s police force. She urged residents to stay away from downtown Washington and avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight.” But, she warned, “we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city”.
Police reported 12 protests-related arrests on Tuesday and Wednesday for a variety of crimes, including charges of possession of a gun, assaulting a police officer, simple assault, possession of a stun gun and other violations.
Election officials from both political parties, governors in key battlefield states and former Trump attorney general William Barr said there was no widespread election fraud. Almost all legal disputes by Trump and his allies have been dismissed by the judges, including two disputes dismissed by the Supreme Court.
A pro-Trump demonstration on December 12 ended in violence when hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the black and yellow signature of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, sought clashes with a collective of local activists who were trying to stop them to enter the Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area close to the White House. At least two local Black churches had banners of Black Lives Mattered overturned and set on fire.
On Monday, police arrested Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, after he arrived in Washington before this week’s protests. Tarrio was accused of burning one of the Black Lives Matter tracks in December and was found with two high-capacity firearms magazines, police said. A judge signed an order on Tuesday banning Tarrio from entering the District of Columbia, with very limited exceptions related to his criminal case.
In addition to the National Guard, federal agents were on standby if they were needed quickly by the city this week.
The federal Bureau of Prisons said that about 100 “specially trained officers” were sent to the Justice Department headquarters to assist other security personnel, but would remain “in a reserve capacity, unless necessary”.