Supporters of President Donald Trump escalated demonstrations Thursday night against an election they believe was rigged or stolen, clashing with counter-protesters as vote counting continued in battle states.
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In Arizona, one of five U.S. battlefield states, where votes were still being counted in the too-close race between Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Trump supporters rallied outside the county Elections Department. of Maricopa in Phoenix.
Some briefly chased after a man holding a sign depicting the president as a Nazi pig behind a stage where right-wing radio host Alex Jones was speaking.
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Police intervened and broke up the altercation after the man and his small group of counter-protesters were surrounded by Trump activists, according to a Reuters witness. There were no reports of injuries.
“They are trying to steal the election, but America knows what happened and is fighting back,” Jones told the crowd of about 300. “1776 is the answer to 1984,” he said, in an apparent reference to the United States Declaration of Independence and George Orwell’s dystopian novel.
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The protests have been scattered, small and largely peaceful since Americans went to the polls on Tuesday.
Facebook Inc said it had taken down a fast-growing group that the social networking site said pro-Trump activists had posted with violent rhetoric calling for “boots on the ground” to protect the integrity of the election.
Biden’s supporters have adopted the slogan “count every vote,” saying that a complete and accurate tabulation in the remaining states on the battlefield would show that the former vice president had won the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
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Trump has repeatedly said without evidence that mail-in ballots are prone to fraud, although election experts say that is rare in American elections.
PENNSYLVANIA PROTESTS
Both sides held rallies in Philadelphia on Thursday, where election staff members slowly counted thousands of mail-in ballots that could decide the crucial 20 votes of the Pennsylvania Electoral College.
Trump activists waved flags and carried signs reading “Voting Stops On Election Day” and “Sorry, Polls Are Closed” as Biden supporters danced to music behind a barricade across the street. Street.
“We can’t allow ballot counters to be intimidated,” said retired social worker Bob Posuney, a 70-year-old Biden supporter who wore a “count all votes” t-shirt as Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” the air .
Late Thursday, Philadelphia police said they were investigating an alleged plot to attack the city’s Pennsylvania Convention Center, where votes were being counted. The police detained at least one man and seized a weapon. No injuries were reported.
In Harrisburg, about 100 Trump supporters gathered on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol building Thursday afternoon as part of a “Stop the Steal” rally organized by conservative Virginia activist Scott Presler.
“This is not a rally that supports a particular candidate,” Presler said. “This is a rally that fights for two things: truth and justice.” He said in an interview that he planned to raise funds for an audit of the state’s vote count.
Earlier on Thursday, a state appeals court ruled that more Republican observers could enter the building in Philadelphia where poll workers were counting the ballots.
In Milwaukee, about 50 Trump supporters gathered outside a city building where votes were being counted, playing country music, waving flags and carrying signs reading “Count” and “Rig.”
About a dozen counter-protesters arrived after an hour, shouting “Black lives matter” and “saying their names,” referring to the victims of police brutality. Others threw eggs at Trump supporters from a passing car.
“The future of my country is what brings me here tonight,” said Mitchell Landgraf, a 21-year-old construction worker who cast his first vote in a presidential election for Trump. “I’m afraid if it goes one way, this country will go downhill quickly.”
At least 400 protesters gathered outside the Clark County Elections Department in Las Vegas. Loud patriotic anthems blared from the speakers as dozens waved giant flags of Trump and the United States. Biden has a lead of just over 11,000 votes in Nevada as the count continues.
In Washington, DC, a procession of cars and bicycles sponsored by activists from a group called Shutdown DC slowly paraded through the streets of the capital to protest what they called “an attack on the democratic process” by Trump and his “enablers.” , according to their website.
(Reporting by Joseph Tanfani in Philadelphia; Nathan Layne in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Maria Caspani in New York; Katanga Johnson in Atlanta; Mimi Dwyer in Phoenix, Arizona; Brad Brooks in Las Vegas; Gabriella Borter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Jonathan Allen in New York; Michael Martina in Detroit; Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Written by Dan Whitcomb; Edited by Jonathan Oatis, Bill Tarrant, Dan Grebler, and Lincoln Feast.)
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