Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College and popular vote victory as legitimate. Cries of “Stop the Steal” and “Count Every Vote” continued in spite of a lack of evidence of voter fraud or other problems that could reverse the result, AP reported.

After night fell, the relatively peaceful demonstrations in Washington turned from tense to violent. Videos posted on social media showed fistfights, projectiles and clubs as Trump supporters clashed with those demanding they take their MAGA hats and banners and leave. The tensions extended to Sunday morning. A variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, were filed against those arrested, officials said. Two police officers were injured and several firearms were recovered by police.

Among the speakers in Washington 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 Supreme Court.

With right-wing militia group the Proud Boys also among those attending, a large security presence was deployed to prevent clashes with anti-Trump events outside the Supreme Court.

Videos posted on social media showed some demonstrators and counterdemonstrators trading shoves, punches and slaps.

Trump himself had given an approving nod to the gathering Saturday morning by dispatching his motorcade through streets lined with supporters. People chanted “USA, USA” and “four more years,” and many carried signs to show their displeasure with the vote tally and insistence that, as Trump has baselessly asserted, fraud was the reason.

The Republican incumbent is sticking to discredited claims of mass fraud and claiming he defeated Biden in the November 3 vote.

A broad coalition of top government and industry officials has declared that the voting and the following count unfolded smoothly with no more than the usual minor hiccups — “the most secure in American history,” they said, repudiating Trump’s efforts to undermine the integrity of the contest.

The latest tallies gave the Democrat Biden a clear win in the state-by-state Electoral College that decides the presidency, with 306 votes against Trump's 232. Two hundred seventy votes are required for election, AFP wrote.

Trump is impeding Biden's transition ahead of inauguration on January 20 and has filed numerous lawsuits – unsuccessfully – to challenge vote counts around the country.

Trump said Friday that “time will tell” if he remains president, in a momentary slip of his refusal to concede his election defeat.

The hint of doubt came despite him continuing to claim that mass fraud – for which no evidence has been produced – robbed him of victory.

Despite his own intelligence officials’ declaration this week that the election was “the most secure in American history,” Trump and his right-wing media allies show no sign of giving up their quest to get the results overturned.


source irandaily

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