WASHINGTON (AP) — After several thousand supporters of President Donald Trump protested the election results and marched to the Supreme Court, nighttime clashes with counterdemonstrators led to fistfights, at least one stabbing and more than 20 arrests.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s victory as legitimate, as cries of “Stop the Steal” and “Count Every Vote” rang out.
The demonstrations in the nation’s capital went from tense to violent during the night and early Sunday. Videos posted on social media showed fights, projectiles and clubs as Trump backers sparred with those demanding they take their MAGA hats and banners and leave. Police said they made 21 arrests on a variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, and recovered eight firearms. Four officers were injured. No arrest has been made in the stabbing, and the victim was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
Trump himself had made an appearance at the gathering Saturday morning by sending his motorcade through streets lined with supporters. People chanted “USA, USA” and “four more years,” and many carried American flags and signs to show their displeasure with the vote tally and insistence that fraud was the reason.
“I just want to keep up his spirits and let him know we support him,” said one loyalist, Anthony Whittaker of Winchester, Virginia. He was outside the Supreme Court, where a few thousand assembled after a march along Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza, near the White House.
In Delray Beach, Florida, several hundred people marched, some carrying signs reading “Count every vote” and “We cannot live under a Marxist government.” In Lansing, Michigan, protesters gathered at the Capitol to hear speakers cast doubt on results that showed Biden winning the state by more than 140,000 votes. Phoenix police estimated 1,500 people gathered outside the Arizona Capitol to protest Biden’s narrow victory in the state. Protesters in Salem, Oregon, gathered at the Capitol.
Among the speakers in Washington was a Georgia Republican newly elected to the U.S. House. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories, urged people to march peacefully toward the Supreme Court.
Multiple confrontations appeared later in the day 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.
In a pattern that kept repeating itself, those Trump supporters who approached the area were harassed, doused with water and saw their MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags snatched and burned, amid cheers. As night fell, multiple police lines kept 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 street by a man who was then surrounded by several people and shoved and punched until he fell face first into the street. Bloody and dazed, he was picked up and walked to a police officer.
WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
Graphic: A close-up angle of BLM rioters knocking a man unconscious who was leaving the #MillionMAGAMarch in DC earlier today. They also steal his phone when he’s on the ground. Video by @FromKalen. pic.twitter.com/cf7bnkpsCf
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) November 15, 2020
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.
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.
We could support them by doing a strong teshuva this Rosh Chodesh kisleiv. BEHATZLACHA
The President has not had a public event since he laid a wreath at Arlington on the 11th. He has not made a public statement since the 6th. If he is doing nothing much to Stop the Steal, why should anyone else?
the police directed the people to walk into the blm/antifa ambush waiting for them on a side street.
of course the evil of such cops was revealed during the crown heights riots where they also just “followed orders”.
watch out for cops in your neighborhood