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Donald Trump continues to rage against the dying light of his U.S. presidency, falsely claiming to be the victim of massive electoral fraud and praising the right-wingers and conspiracy theorists who gathered in Washington on Saturday to echo its fabrication.
Trump has yet to admit he lost the Nov.3 election to Joe Biden, despite a lengthy tally showing the Democrat has comfortably secured the electoral college votes needed for victory, taking previously safe Republican states in Arizona and possibly Georgia, where a manual count is done. on going.
Across America, Biden has more than 5 million more votes.
The president has refused to cooperate with a transition of power to Biden, who will enter the White House on January 20, or even provide his successor with national security briefings. Trump went on Saturday to claim, without proof, that the election was “rigged” and that he is the rightful winner.
On Friday, federal and state officials said the election was “the safest in US history,” with no evidence that votes were compromised or altered.
Yet many Trump supporters accept the president’s claims, with several hundred rallies in Washington organized under headlines including “Million MAGA March” and “Stop the Steal.” Fringe extremist figures such as Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Enrique Tarrio, president of the far-right group Proud Boys, and Jack Posobiec, who promoted the infamous “Pizzagate” conspiracy that led to a 2016 shooting at a restaurant in Washington, led demonstrations that Trump called “heartwarming.”
Trump walked out of the White House Saturday morning to applause, cheers, greetings and whistles from hundreds of supporters lining both sides of the street. They hit the air, took pictures with phones, and held up posters that included “Best Presidency” and “Stop Theft.”
The crowd also waved banners including “Trump 2020: Keep America Great”, “Trump 2020: No More Nonsense”, “All aboard the Trump Train!” and “Trump 2020: Pro Life, Pro God, Pro Gun.” A stand had been set up to sell merchandise, like at a Trump rally. Some ran excitedly behind the caravan. There were chants of “USA! USES! “,” We want Trump! We want Trump! “and” Four more years! Four more years! “
An attendee, Mike Sembert of Fort Meyers in Florida, told The Guardian that he had traveled to the rally because “we need our president back and we need four more years.” He said the election was fraudulent and that the votes were cast as “illegal and dead.”
Anti-Trump protesters have also continued to congregate in Washington since street celebrations erupted when Biden’s victory was confirmed a week ago. Signs, some of which say “Loser” and “Failure,” have plastered a non-scalable fence erected around the entire perimeter of the White House.
There has been a “scandalous and illegitimate attempt to reverse the election that must be stopped in its tracks by people on the streets that makes it clear: the election is over,” said Sunsara Taylor, an anti-Trump protester. “Biden won. Trump lost. “
The courts, as well as the major news organizations that typically screen election winners, do not appear to be in the mood to please Trump. The president’s campaign has suffered a series of legal losses in Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania after arguing that the ballots were illegally counted.
“The Trump campaign is still hoping to find a judge who treats the lawsuits as tweets,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School and an expert on election law, told CNN. “Over and over again, all the people in a gown that they have come across have said, ‘Sorry, we make laws here.’
Most senior Republicans have sided with Trump or refused to condemn his refusal to acknowledge his loss, a stance that will lead the United States down a “dangerous path,” warned former President Barack Obama. There are some notable Republican exceptions. George W Bush, another former president, congratulated Biden on his victory.
The tumultuous transition comes as the United States is devastated by a surge in coronavirus cases. On Friday, Johns Hopkins University posted a new daily record of 184,514 infections, and Americans now die at a rate of about 1,000 a day. Nearly 250,000 people in the United States have died due to the pandemic, by far the worst death toll in the world.
Biden has urged people to take basic precautions, like wearing masks, while attacking the Trump administration’s “woefully lacking” response to the crisis.
“I will not be president until next year,” said the president-elect. “This crisis does not respect dates on the calendar, it is accelerating right now. Urgent action is needed today, now, by the current administration, starting with a recognition of how dire the current situation is. “
