Hundreds of flag-bearing and camouflaged Trump supporters — together with Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys — took to the streets of the nation’s cap
Hundreds of flag-bearing and camouflaged Trump supporters — together with Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys — took to the streets of the nation’s capital on Saturday for what has been dubbed the “Million MAGA March,” a protest in help of President Donald Trump’s false declare that he was cheated out of an election win.
The president, who has but to concede his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, even made an look on the march. Simply after 10 am, Trump’s motorcade took a spin down Pennsylvania Avenue, with the president smiling and waving to a throng of followers — most not carrying masks — in Freedom Plaza. Trump rapidly left the protest space, on his option to Trump Nationwide Golf Membership within the Virginia suburbs.
Trump might’ve delivered a rousing speech to his followers on the Million MAGA March however as an alternative he opted to drive by them so he might play golf. pic.twitter.com/HHH8wQVsyf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 14, 2020
A number of folks within the crowd spoke with the Washington Publish concerning the president’s look. “He drove proper previous me. I noticed him. He waved proper previous me,” one man advised the Publish.
“He appeared pretend,” one other stated. “I’m nonetheless shaking.”
The president’s go to lends legitimacy to a protest churning with conspiracy theories and falsehoods concerning the election. Earlier this week, Trump referred to as the protests, which had been promoted by far-right influencers all week, “heartwarming.”
Heartwarming to see all the great help on the market, particularly the natural Rallies which are arising all around the Nation, together with an enormous one on Saturday in D.C. I’ll even attempt to cease by and say whats up. This Election was Rigged, from Dominion all the way in which up & down!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2020
Regardless of Trump’s and his supporters’ claims, President-elect Joe Biden legitimately received the election by a large margin, a outcome which will probably be licensed by states on December 8. The electoral school will vote on December 14, and Biden will probably be put in subsequent yr.
However Trump has refused to just accept this, launching broadsides on Twitter, and combating a shedding authorized battle to overturn the outcomes. A lot of the president’s supporter base, together with many Republican lawmakers, have to this point refused to just accept Biden because the election winner.
The Million MAGA March is an offshoot of a bigger “Cease the Steal” nationwide protest motion, which incorrectly claims Democrats conspired to steal the election from Republicans. The president’s supporters declare this theft was enacted in a wide range of methods, from the Dominion voting machines — that are digital and had been utilized in many states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, amongst others — altering votes in key states, to a mishmash of false or weak claims about election observers being denied entry to vote counts in swing state cities.
All of those claims have been rebutted by proof — and a few instances, by judges — however that has not stopped the president and his supporters from persevering with to insist he really received the election.
Saturday’s march was an amalgam of a number of completely different protests — a “Cease the Steal” protest, a “March for Trump” occasion, and the Million MAGA March — set to begin at Freedom Plaza earlier than a march to the Supreme Courtroom at midday. Partially organized by Girls for America First, which obtained a allow from town, the protests drew a variety of far-right teams — even right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was anticipated to attend.
Forward of the protests, metropolis residents and officers had been on excessive alert, particularly after the white nationalist-organized Unite the Proper rally in Charlottesville in 2017, throughout which a counterprotester was killed. Nonetheless, contemplating what number of different current high-profile white nationalist rallies — just like the Straight Delight March in Boston in 2019 — fizzled out, nobody was certain what precisely to anticipate from the march.
As of Saturday morning, clashes with counterprotesters largely didn’t materialize. One small group of ladies who led counterprotesters had been constantly surrounded by Trump supporters, with each teams shouting and chanting at one another till the counterprotest group was in a position to cross a police barricade to security.
Whereas turnout was in all probability within the hundreds, that didn’t cease the White Home from inflating the largely peaceable protest’s numbers.
And but the truth that so many confirmed up in any respect exhibits how profitable Trump has been in convincing supporters that there’s something amiss with the 2020 outcomes — even when he hasn’t been in a position to persuade the courts.