From News Nation:
“Protesters
swarm Statehouses across the country; protests reported throughout country”
Protesters
backing President Donald Trump massed outside statehouses from Georgia to New
Mexico on Wednesday, leading some officials to evacuate while cheers rang out
at several demonstrations as a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds
of people gathered in state capitals nationwide to oppose President-elect Joe
Biden’s win, waving signs saying “Stop the steal” and “Four more years.” Most
of them didn’t wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, and some carried guns
in places like Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Washington state.
There were some
scuffles in states like Ohio and California, with some instances of journalists
or counterprotesters being pepper-sprayed or punched, but most demonstrations
were peaceful — some of them quite small — and only a few arrests were
reported. New Mexico police evacuated staff as a precaution from a Statehouse
building that includes the governor’s office and the secretary of state’s
office, shortly after hundreds of flag-waving supporters arrived in a vehicle
caravan and on horseback. Demonstrators sang “God Bless America,” honked horns
and wrongly announced on a megaphone that Trump was the rightful election
winner — though Biden won the vote in New Mexico by a margin of roughly 11%. “It’s
the first time in the history of the United States that the peaceful transfer
of power has been slowed by an act of violence,¨ Democratic House Speaker Brian
Egolf said. “It is a shameful moment, and I hope that the Congress can recover
soon.” Violent protests in Washington,
D.C., came as Congress tried to affirm Biden’s Electoral College victory. News
that protesters had breached the U.S. Capitol set off cheers at pro-Trump
protests in Minnesota, Nevada and Arizona, where armed protesters marched at
the Capitol in Phoenix and several men displayed a guillotine. Georgia’s
secretary of state and his staff evacuated their offices at the Capitol as
about 100 protesters gathered outside, some armed with long guns.
Republican
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his team decided to leave, according
to Gabriel Sterling, a top official with Raffensperger’s office. “We saw stuff
happening at the Georgia Capitol and said we should not be around here, we
should not be a spark,” Sterling told The Associated Press. Trump has focused
much of his ire on Raffensperger in the weeks following his loss by about
12,000 votes. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp slammed the storming of the U.S.
Capitol, calling it “a disgrace and quite honestly un-American.” Kemp said he
was extending an executive order from protests over the summer activating the
National Guard in case they are needed to protect the state Capitol on Monday
when the legislative session begins. In Washington state, protesters broke
through a gate at the governor’s mansion and dozens of people gathered on the
lawn for about 30 minutes before being cleared from the area. The crowd, some
of whom were armed, repeated baseless allegations of election fraud. The State
Patrol said that Gov. Jay Inslee “and his family are in a safe location.” Earlier,
dozens of people gathered at the state Capitol, demanding a recount of the U.S.
presidential election and Washington’s gubernatorial election, which Inslee, a
Democrat, won by more than 500,000 votes. The Statehouse has been closed to the
public for nearly a year due to the pandemic. In Utah, the staff of Gov.
Spencer Cox was sent home as several hundred people gathered in Salt Lake City,
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson tweeted. Salt Lake Tribune photographer Rick Egan
said he was pepper-sprayed by a demonstrator who taunted him for wearing a mask
and shoved him as he was shooting video of the protest. It wasn’t immediately
clear if anyone was arrested. At least one person was arrested at the Oregon
Capitol in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct as police in
riot gear tried to get people — many of them armed — to leave. Video showed
protesters and counterprotesters clashing and riot police moving in. But by
midafternoon, only a few dozen people remained, their American flags and Trump
banners drooping in the rain. In Topeka, Kansas, chants of “Stop the steal” and
“No more masks” faded as a rally ended and Trump supporters filed peacefully
into the Statehouse building through security checkpoints, milling around
historical exhibits. In Honolulu, about 100 protesters lined the road outside
the state Capitol waving American and Trump 2020 flags at passing cars. Sheryl
Bieler, a retiree in the blue state, said she came out to “support our
president and support the integrity of the elections.” Trump supporters circled
the state Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin, in cars and trucks adorned
with Trump and U.S. flags for several hours Wednesday, blaring their horns. In
Colorado, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock ordered city agencies to close buildings
after hundreds gathered in front of the Capitol building for a protest against
the election results. In South Carolina, protesters supporting Trump came to
the Statehouse but left before the U.S. Capitol was breached.
^ It seems Trump
and his supporters held coordinated attacks not only in Washington DC, but
around the United States in an effort to destroy American Democracy and our Way
of Life. Luckily, they have failed. ^
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