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Thousands of protesters with red hats filled the streets of Washington DC today to demand “four more years” for the presidency of Donald Trump.
Despite a painful decision yesterday in the United States Supreme Court, which rejected a last-ditch effort by Trump supporters to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s victory on Nov. 3, those who attended the rally insisted that their candidate had won and made their views known out loud.
Thousands of people gathered around Freedom Plaza, a few blocks from the White House, in a festive atmosphere.
It was a sizeable crowd, but notably smaller than a similar rally a month ago when 10,000 people gathered near the White House to support President Trump.
“We are not going to give up,” said Luke Wilson, a 60-something protester who had come from the western state of Idaho.
“I think a great injustice is being done against the American people,” added Dell Quick, a regular at Trump’s political rallies. He brandished a flag defending gun rights.
The protesters offered many explanations about the result of the November vote, even though it has been confirmed by state election officials, several of them Republicans, and by judges in several key states.
All states have certified Biden’s victory, giving the Democrat 306 votes in the Electoral College to Trump’s 232, with 270 needed for the election. Voters will formally cast their votes on Monday.
Our Washington correspondent Brian O’Donovan speaks with supporters of Donald Trump after the US Supreme Court threw out a bid from Texas to overturn the results of the presidential election. | Read more: https://t.co/mVmPX35RAC pic.twitter.com/4wMzAHE5Z6
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 12, 2020
But protesters insisted, as Donald Trump has repeatedly done, that there was widespread fraud in the elections, with no evidence to back up this claim.
Some pointed to “foreign interference,” others to software that supposedly erased millions of votes for the president, but not those of other Republican candidates on the same ballots.
Dozens of court cases alleging fraud or contesting the outcome have been resolved, virtually all in favor of Joe Biden, with some judges harshly criticizing the lack of evidence.
But that wasn’t enough for Darlene Denton, 47, who wore a “Trump 2024” badge on her sweatshirt.
“Nobody wants to hear evidence, nobody wants to hear cases, everything just gets thrown away,” said Denton, who had come from Tennessee to support a president who said he had given “a voice to the people.”
Trump, in complete defiance of the clear result and American tradition, has refused to give in to Biden.
“Wow! Thousands of people are training in Washington (DC) for Stop the Steal,” he tweeted earlier today. “I didn’t know about this, but I’ll be watching!”
Among the protesters, members of the far-right militia Proud Boys were clearly visible, in their distinctive black and yellow outfits, some in bulletproof vests, and often elicited cheers from others in the crowd.
A few blocks away, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement staged their own, much smaller rally, shouting “Nazis out!”
USA carries out a new execution
The US authorities have carried out their 10th execution of the year, the latest in a series of capital punishments carried out by the administration of President Donald Trump before he leaves office.
Alfred Bourgeois, an African-American sentenced to death for the murder of his two-year-old daughter, was executed by lethal injection in a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
“Bourgeois was pronounced dead at 8:21 pm EST by the Vigo County Coroner,” the federal prison said in a statement.
The execution came a day after another convicted inmate, Brandon Bernard, was also executed in Terre Haute.
After a paternity test, Bourgeois, a 55-year-old former truck driver, took temporary custody of his daughter and drove her on a truck route for part of the summer of 2002.
He severely abused her and eventually smashed her skull with the windshield.
Since the crime took place at a military base where he was delivering, he was tried in federal court and sentenced to death in 2004.
He remained on death row, and the United States suspended federal executions starting in 2003, in particular due to doubts about the legality of injecting drugs.
However, President Trump restarted federal executions in July, despite states that still use capital punishment have delayed theirs due to the dangers posed to prison staff and witnesses by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Seven federal executions occurred before the November 3 elections.
President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to work with the United States Congress to end federal executions.
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