Trump supporters descend on D.C. ahead of electoral vote count
WASHINGTON — “The Trump base, they want to see fighters,” said Las Vegan Courtney Holland.
That’s why she is participating in Wednesday’s March for Trump rally on the very day Congress is expected to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Holland and legions of supporters of President Donald Trump descended on the nation’s capital Tuesday ahead of a joint session of Congress, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, for the counting of the electoral votes cast in November’s election.
Trump has repeatedly said there was widespread fraud in the election, and he sees the joint session as one of his final attempts to overturn the results. He encouraged his supporters to come to Washington and announced on Twitter that he will speak at the rally at 8 a.m. Pacific time: “Arrive early – doors open at 7 AM Eastern. BIG CROWDS!”
“No matter what happens on Wednesday, there’s going to be a shift, especially within the conservative base,” said Holland, who organized five days of Stop the Steal protests in front of the Clark County election center after the Nov. 3 election. “I don’t think the Republican Party will ever be the same.”
Outside Washington, Trump supporters will hold rallies in their communities, including a Trump car parade on the Strip that starts at 9 a.m.
On Tuesday, many Trump supporters gathered in Washington under gray skies for a pre-rally rally at Freedom Plaza.
Among the speakers was former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom the president pardoned after he was twice convicted of lying to the FBI in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“We stand at a crucible moment in United States history,” Flynn told the crowd. “This country is awake now.”
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called in National Guard troops to help bolster the city’s police force.
“I am asking Washingtonians and those who live in the region to stay out of the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday and not to engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation, and we will do what we must to ensure all who attend remain peaceful,” Bowser said in a statement.
“I will simply hope that the insanity does not turn to violence,” Democratic pollster Paul Maslin told the Review-Journal.
He cited a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and threats against Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a subject of the president’s Twitter vitriol since Trump lost the Peach State.
“I hope there won’t be any violence,” Holland said as well.
Having attended an earlier pro-Trump rally in the nation’s capital to promote “election integrity,” Holland said she had learned to “be out during the day” in numbers but then lie low at night when radical left-wing activists harassed Trump supporters.
D.C. authorities posted signs to inform the public about a local law that prohibits individuals from carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of any First Amendment activity and a federal law that bans possession of firearms on national park grounds, including Freedom Plaza, the Ellipse and the National Mall.
Nevada GOP operative Jesse Law said he has “a lot of faith in the goodness of the people who are going here for Trump,” which is why he is bringing his mother and sister to the rally.
Law said party officials had been involved in “a flurry of activity over the weekend” trying to set out a strategy to turn the election in Trump’s favor.
Among those strategizing about how to turn the outcome after all 50 states certified their electors was Republican former Assemblyman Jim Marchant, who said that “it’s all in how you interpret the Constitution.”
“Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. Nobody really knows what President Trump’s going to do; nobody knows what Vice President Mike Pence is going to do,” Marchant said. “We’re just trying to see if there’s anything we can do to keep President Trump as our president.”
Maslin’s response: “These people are undermining the democracy that made this country strong.”
Vice President Al Gore conceded defeat in 2000. Hillary Clinton conceded in 2016. After 60-plus failed lawsuits by the Trump campaign to contest Biden’s victory, “it’s time,” Maslin said, adding that “you don’t have to be happy about it.”
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Maslin conceded that many Trump voters sincerely believe that the president won re-election despite Biden’s 7 million vote lead. But, he said, “that horse has been guided to a dirty stream by a whole bunch of people who should have known better.”
Can the challenge by Trump supporters succeed?
Law answered, “I define success by whatever happens is in God’s hands.”
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Judge bans Proud Boys leader from Washington after arrest
WASHINGTON — A judge has banned the leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, from the nation's capital after he was accused of vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church and found with high-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested.
The order bans Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, 36, from entering the District of Columbia, with very limited exceptions to meet with his attorney or appear in court. It comes a day after he was arrested arriving in Washington ahead of protests planned by supporters of President Donald Trump to coincide with the congressional vote expected Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden's election victory.
Tarrio was arrested Monday by the Metropolitan Police Department and accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington last month. He was charged with destruction of property and is also facing a weapons charges after officers found him with the firearm magazines when he was arrested.
— The Associated Press
