Three people have been injured and several guns seized after thousands of Donald Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists and neo-fascists gathered to claim that the US presidential election had been stolen.
Mr Trump’s backers swarmed his motorcade near the White House in Washington DC, as protesters echoed his unfounded claims of a rigged election – despite being comfortably beaten by president-elect Joe Biden last week.
Saturday’s ‘Million Maga March’ – referring to the outgoing President’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan, saw police arrested at least 20 people on a variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, officials said. Officers recovered several firearms, they added, with one stabbing being reported and two police officers injured.
The march was largely peaceful despite fears that there could be major clashes with anti-Trump protesters but there were some clashes and later reports of rival groups launching fireworks at each other.
But a week after the presidential race was called for Mr Biden, anger at the prospect of Mr Trump transferring power ahead of a January inauguration shows little sign of receding.
The current president has defied convention by failing to concede and has even claimed he won the election.
Mr Biden won 306 electoral college votes, to Mr Trump’s 232, though Georgia, worth 16 votes to Mr Biden, is being recounted. Candidates require 270 to win.
A broad coalition of US government and industry officials declared that the November 3 vote and the following count unfolded smoothly with no more than the usual minor hiccups, undermining the president’s efforts to question the integrity of the contest.
Crowds began to gather on Saturday morning when cheers rang out as Mr Trump’s limousine neared Freedom Plaza, with people lining both sides of the street.
Demonstrators waved flags, cheered and held signs saying ‘stop the steal’.
Some stood just a few feet away from Mr Trump’s vehicle, while others showed their enthusiasm by running along with the motorcade.
After making the short detour for the slow drive around the rally site, the motorcade headed to the president’s Virginia golf club.
Among the speakers was a Georgia Republican newly elected to the US house of representatives.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories, urged people to march peacefully toward the US supreme court.
Marchers included members of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group known for street brawling with ideological opponents at political rallies.
The event was largely peaceful, with some tension along the margins as counter-demonstrators heckled the Trump supporters with chants of: ‘You lost!’
The march had been heavily promoted on social media, raising concerns that it could spark conflict with anti-Trump demonstrators, who have gathered near the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza for weeks.
In preparation, police closed off wide areas of the city centre, where many shops and offices have been boarded up since election day.
Chris Rodriguez, director of the city’s homeland security and emergency management agency, said the police were experienced at keeping the peace.
The issues Mr Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots to be miscast or lost.
With Mr Biden leading the president by wide margins in key battleground states, none of those issues would have any impact on the outcome of the election.
Mr Trump’s campaign has also filed legal challenges, complaining that its poll watchers were unable to scrutinise the voting process.
Many of those challenges have been dismissed by judges, some within hours of their filing.
A former administration official, Sebastian Gorka, whipped up the crowd by the supreme court by saying: ‘We can win because he did win.’
But he added: ‘It’s going to be tough.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/15/violence-erupts-as-trump-supporters-clash-with-counter-protesters-13596330/