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Protesters clashed with police in Washington on Saturday, when thousands of Donald Trump supporters staged a rally against the presidential election result just two days before the electoral college cemented it.
Small fights broke out in the city center throughout the night as police struggled to maintain pro-Trump demonstrations, some led by the far-right Proud Boys movement, away from the counter-protesters.
Earlier in the day, members of Trump’s inner circle addressed the crowd gathered for the “MAGA Million March,” including Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser whom the president recently pardoned. Trump supporters chanted “Stop the robbery!” and “Four more years!”
The rallies came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last resort lawsuit challenging Trump’s defeat in last month’s election.
Many of his supporters expressed anger at the Republican Party and Fox News, in a sign of how Trump’s defeat has driven a wedge between his supporters and the organizations that propelled him to power.
The second ‘MAGA Million March’ since the November 3 elections © AFP via Getty Images
The demonstration is estimated to have drew thousands of people to the capital © AFP via Getty Images
Trump seemed to give his blessing to the protests, tweeting: “Wow! Thousands of people are training in Washington (DC) for Stop the Steal. I didn’t know anything about this, but I’ll be watching them! #MAGA”.
Later, two helicopters flew over the protest, which many of his supporters believed was the president leaving to attend the US Army / Navy football game in New York.
Saturday’s protest was smaller than the one that took place in the capital a month ago after Trump’s defeat. Several hundred protesters came from the Proud Boys group, which Trump told during the September presidential debate to “back off and stay on the sidelines.”
Wearing yellow scarves, hats and kilts, members of the Proud Boys broke away from the main rally and clashed with anti-racist protesters. Videos posted on social media He showed protesters attacking each other carrying sticks and shields. A video showed protesters setting fire to a Black Lives Matter banner.
The electoral college will meet Monday to formally cast votes on behalf of each state and confirm Biden’s victory by 306 votes to 232. One of the last remaining challenges to that process was dismissed on Friday, when the Supreme Court rejected an attempt to the state of Texas to rule out election results in four battleground states that Trump lost.
Speaking to protesters on Saturday, Flynn insisted: “The courts do not decide who will be the next president of the United States. There are paths that are still at stake ”.
But Trump has already said that he will leave the White House if the electoral college confirms Biden as president. Mr. Biden is due to take office as president on January 20.
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