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Conservative groups and thousands of Donald Trump supporters who claimed without evidence that the November 3 election was stolen from the president of the United States staged protests across the country on Saturday, and one in Washington turned violent at times when police broke up sporadic fighting after dark.
Organizers of Stop The Steal, linked to the pro-Trump operation Roger Stone, and church groups urged their followers to participate in “Jericho Marches” and prayer rallies.
But groups of pro-Trump “Proud Boys” protesters and “Antifa” counter-protesters rebelled in central Washington Saturday night. Police moved quickly to separate them, using pepper spray on members of both sides, Reuters witnesses said.
In some places, angry clashes between protesters and counter-protesters turned into violence. There was a series of skirmishes in the national capital, where at least four people were stabbed and police declared a riot in Olympia, Washington, where one person was shot. In videos of a confrontation in Olympia posted on social media, a single shot can be heard as black-clad counter-protesters approach members of the pro-Trump group, including a person waving a large Trump flag. After the shot, one of the counter-protesters is seen falling to the ground, and others call for help. In one video, a man with a gun can be seen fleeing the scene and donning a red hat. Chris Loftis, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, said two people were in custody in connection with the episode, but specific details about the shooting were not yet clear, including the condition of the person who was shot.
About 200 members of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group, had joined the marches early Saturday near the Trump hotel. Many wore combat uniforms, black and yellow shirts and ballistic vests, wore helmets and made hand signals used by white nationalists.
Earlier, police in riot gear and bicycles kept opposition protesters apart by blocking the streets. After night fell, the protesters, including members of the aggressive far-left anti-fascist movement, split into smaller groups to roam the streets in search of rivals.
Protests also took place in other communities across the country, including Atlanta, Georgia, another state where the Trump campaign has sought to reverse Joe Biden’s election victory, and Mobile, Alabama, according to local news coverage.
Mike Flynn addresses the crowd
More than 50 federal and state court rulings have confirmed Biden’s victory. The United States Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit brought by Texas and backed by Trump that seeks to dismiss the results of voting in four states.
“Whatever the ruling yesterday … everyone take a deep, deep breath,” retired Army General Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, told protesters in front of the Supreme Court, referring to the court’s refusal. to hear the case of Texas. .
Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with the former Russian ambassador, spoke in his first public speech since Trump pardoned him on Nov. 24.
“My job for you is to go back to where you are from” and make demands, Flynn told the crowd, without being more specific. The US constitution “is not about collective liberties, it is about individual liberties, and they designed it that way,” he said.
Trump, a Republican, has refused to admit defeat, claiming without proof that he was denied victory through massive fraud. On the way to Andrews Air Force Base and then to the Army-Navy soccer game in New York, Trump made three passes in the Marine One helicopter over the cheering protesters.
During his first debate with Biden in September, Trump fueled the Proud Boys movement by telling the group to “stand back and stay put.” He later said he condemned the group and “all white supremacists.”
A Proud Boys woman wears an American flag scarf during a Saturday December protest in Washington DC. Photograph: Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
Protesters without a mask
Trump supporters carrying his campaign banners and posters marched between the Supreme Court, the Capitol and downtown Washington, which was closed to traffic by police vehicles and garbage trucks.
Few of the protesters wore masks, despite high deaths and Covid-19 cases, defying a mayor’s directive that they be worn outside. Several thousand people demonstrated in Washington, fewer than during a similar protest last month.
While some in the crowd echoed far-right conspiracy theories about the election, a trailer pulled by a truck waved Trump 2020 flags and a sign reading “Trump Unity” as the country song God Bless the USA.
“It’s clear the election has been stolen,” said Mark Paul Jones of Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, who sported a Revolutionary War tricorner hat as he walked to the supreme court with his wife.
Trump “is being removed from office,” he said, adding that Biden won with the complicity of the supreme court, the FBI, the justice department and the CIA. The supreme court “didn’t even take the time to hear the case,” Jones said.
Eddy Miller of Philadelphia, who was selling Trump campaign T-shirts, said he was sure “there was fraud despite what I see on the news” about court rulings overturning the fraud allegations.
Battle of Jericho
Some protesters made reference to the biblical miracle of the Battle of Jericho, in which the city walls collapsed after horn-blowing soldiers and priests marched around it.
In his speech, Flynn told protesters that they were all inside Jericho after breaking down its walls.
Ron Hazard of Morristown, NJ, was one of five people who stopped at the Justice Department to blow shofars, a ram’s horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies, to break down the “spiritual” walls “of corruption.”
“We believe that what is happening in this county is something important. It’s a balance between biblical values and unbiblical values, ”Hazard said.
His small group, including one member wearing a Jewish prayer shawl known as a tallit, are Christians “who love the Jewish people. We love Israel, ”he said. – Reuters and New York Times
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