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After Joe Biden was proclaimed the winner of the presidential election a week ago, there have been several smaller demonstrations across the country. They have been largely peaceful.
This weekend, the brands will probably be bigger. Dozens of demonstrations are planned across the United States. Most are organized by the “Stop the Steal” movement. But other groups have also appeared, such as “The Million MAGA March” and “March for Trump.”
The groups believe the presidential election was rigged to make Donald Trump lose and support Trump’s many shoulders over widespread election fraud.
One of Donald Trump’s supporters is ready to participate in the “Stop the Steal” rally in Phoenix, Arizona.
Photo: JIM URQUHART / Reuters
Stop the Steal activists in the streets
Two large rallies of support are scheduled for Saturday in Washington, DC
Already on Thursday a procession of “Stop the Steal” activists could be seen at low speed through the streets of the capital. More are on the way.
– It’s heartwarming to see the enormous support out there, especially the spontaneous demonstrations appearing across the country, including a large one in DC on Saturday. I could come by and say hi, write Trump on Twitter.
Some leftist groups are planning counter-demonstrations in Washington, DC, and other cities.
Follow extremist groups
Oren Segal is vice president of the Center for Extremism of the ADL. He tells USA Today he doesn’t think the event is necessarily a security risk.
But the danger is that there are extremists there with the same ideas, who share the same ideology as those who are not extremists, he says.
The Extremism Center is also closely monitoring various extremist groups and individuals who have said they plan to participate.
Several Facebook groups and Twitter accounts created in connection with the demonstrations have several thousand followers.
“Stop the Steal” rally at a polling station in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 7.
Photo: MARIO TAMA / AFP
“Stop the Steal” took off online
The “Stop the Steal” Facebook group was created on Wednesday of last week. By the next day, November 5, the group had gained more than 300,000 members. Every ten seconds 1,000 new members arrived, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
But then Facebook decided to close the group. Facebook believed that it was used to encourage the use of force and that it was involved in undermining the electoral process.
On Twitter, #StopTheSteal has become a very popular topic. It began on Election Day, November 3, with a video showing an election observer in Philadelphia arguing with an employee who did not want to let him into the polling station. The local authorities said that everything was a mistake and that the electoral observer went to another place.
For many, “Stop the Steal” is a new phenomenon, a movement that has recently made a strong mark both online and on the streets.
But “Stop the Steal” has a long history.
Roger Stone on his way to the courtroom in Washington on February 20.
Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
Appeared in 2016
The inception dates back to former Trump adviser Roger Stone, writes CNN. Stone has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying to Congress, influencing witnesses and preventing Congress from investigating whether the Trump campaign cooperated with the Russians before the 2016 election. Trump overturned the sentence before sentencing began.
In 2016, Stone launched a website called “Stop the Steal” to raise money for Trump’s election campaign.
He asked for donations of $ 10,000 and wrote: “If the election result is stuck, it will be stolen.”
“Stop the Steal” reappeared during the 2018 midterm elections, when Republicans used the hashtag #StopTheSteal during the Florida referendum, where the result during the Senate election was very crowded.
Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
Photograph: J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Steve Bannon with his own group
But it is only this year, relative to the post-election count, that it has taken off.
On the same day that the “Stop the Steal” Facebook group was closed, Steve Bannon started his own group with the same name. Bannon was a former Trump adviser.
The next day, Bannon changed his name to “Own Your Vote.” This group was not removed by Facebook.
Soon after, a host of other similar sites were launched. And soon there were invitations to the demonstrations this weekend.
Trump’s attorneys have filed lawsuits in several states to prevent states from approving the election results. The day after the election, Rudy Giuliani and Eric Trump met with the press in Pennsylvania.
Photo: Matt Slocum / AP
306 voters to Biden
At the same time that Trump and his supporters insist that Trump has won the election, new figures were released from Edison Research on Friday. They showed that Biden won in Georgia and Trump in North Carolina. They were the last two states for which final figures are missing.
It gives a final result of 306 voters for Joe Biden, while Trump has 232. It took 270 voters to win.
But in the White House, they are preparing for Trump to run for president. That was confirmed by Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro on Friday.
Trump did not comment on the election results when he held a press conference the same day. But he said it was seen as a sign that he did not exclude another president after January 20: “… we will see what happens in the future. Time will tell what administration it will be.”
