UPDATE: Supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday behind his claim of a stolen election and swarmed his motorcade in adulation when he detoured for a drive-by on his way out of town.
Hours later, after night fell in the nation’s capital, counterprotesters attacked demonstrators favoring Trump, videos posted on social media showing fistfights, projectiles and clubs.
Police arrested at least 20 people on a variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, officials said.
One stabbing was reported, two police officers were injured and several firearms were also recovered by police.
Trump supporters attempted to enter the area around Black Lives Matter Plaza, about a block from the White House, where several hundred anti-Trump demonstrators had gathered.
In a pattern that kept repeating itself, those Trump supporters who approached the area were harassed, doused with water and saw their MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags snatched and burned, amid cheers.
As night fell, multiple police lines kept the two sides apart.
Videos posted on social media showed some demonstrators and counterdemonstrators trading shoves, punches and slaps.
A man with a bullhorn yelling “Get out of here!” was shoved and pushed to the street by a man who was then surrounded by several people and shoved and punched until he fell face first into the street.
Bloody and dazed, he was picked up and walked to a police officer.
Around midnight, President Trump tweeted out condemnation of the attackers and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for failing to maintain control:
Radical Left ANTIFA SCUM was easily rebuffed today by the big D.C. MAGA Rally crowd, only to return at night, after 99% of the crowd had left, to assault elderly people and families. Police got there, but late. Mayor is not doing her job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back. Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent #MAGA People. DC Police, get going — do your job and don’t hold back!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: (Headline USA) More than a million supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday to “Stop the Steal.”
“I just want to keep up his spirits and let him know we support him,” Anthony Whittaker of Winchester, Virginia, said from outside the Supreme Court, where a few thousand assembled after a march along Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza, near the White House.
The crowd was beginning to gather in the morning when cheers rang out as Trump’s limousine neared Freedom Plaza. People lined both sides of the street. Some stood just a few feet away from Trump’s vehicle; others showed their enthusiasm by running along with the caravan.
They chanted “USA, USA” and “four more years,” and many carried American flags and signs to protest fraudulent election results.
After making the short detour for the slow drive around the site, the motorcade headed to the president’s Virginia golf club.
Among the speakers was a Georgia Republican newly elected to the U.S. House. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has denounced pedophilia among globalist elites, urged people to march peacefully toward the Supreme Court.
The marchers included members of the Proud Boys, a pro-America group known for protecting the streets from violent members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
The march was peaceful, with some tension along the margins as anarchists and communists heckled the Trump supporters with chants of “You lost!”
The “Million MAGA March” was 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 swaths of downtown, where many stores 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 that Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to raise serious concerns about the legitimacy of the election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a vast number of ballots miscast or lost.
With Biden leading Trump by slim margins in key battleground states, all of these issues would have any impact on the outcome of the election.
Trump’s campaign has also filed legal challenges complaining that their poll watchers were unable to scrutinize the voting process.
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.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.
