To his left, a man waved a flag for the anti-Semitic white nationalist movement known as America First. Dan Mueser (R-Pa.), a Trump fan widely believed to be eyeing a run for governor, took hold of a megaphone and spoke to the crowd about how the results of the election were illegitimate. Christopher Mathias of HuffPost was there, and described it as a “heavily armed pity party”: Probably the largest of them was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s state capital-fittingly, since that state’s vote count provided Biden with his margin of victory on Saturday-where Proud Boys linked arms with unrepentant white nationalists to protest Trump’s loss. They also featured some of the extremist elements-including conspiracy-fueled QAnon cultists, thuggish Proud Boys, and armed militiamen-who have become seamlessly identified with the Trump campaign this year. Most of the gatherings featured dozens of Trump supporters at best.
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“Arrest the poll workers!” the crowd chanted-while fenced away from the building’s entrance in a “free speech zone” created for them by Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies. We want to make sure all the legal ballots are counted, and fairly,” said Travis Fillmore, 34, a military veteran from nearby Tempe, who was toting a rifle at the protest. “We just want them to know we won’t let them get away with anything. “Trump always looks like he’s going to lose. “Don’t believe that lie! They got their hands caught in the cookie jar and we’re going to the Supreme Court!” “This election has not been called!” shouted Jake Angeli, a regular at Trump rallies, who stood outside a tabulation center in Phoenix. Trump supporters in Phoenix.Īt the voting-tabulation center in Phoenix, Arizona, where crowds of Trump supporters had attempted to interfere in ballot-counting procedures in the days after the election, fueled by a nonsense conspiracy theory that Republican ballots were being discarded due to the use of Sharpies, protesters lingered through Saturday evening. The shared theme at all of them was that the national media were lying, that Trump was the real winner of the election, and that Democrats, the “deep state,” and “fake news” were all conspiring to make the public think Biden had been elected-in other words, an alternate reality comprised entirely of groundless conspiracy theories. There was no shortage of incendiary rhetoric and threatening behavior, however.Įven though Facebook deleted the “Stop the Steal” pages and events that were created on its platforms by Thursday, the groups nonetheless were successful in spreading the word that the protests were to occur in front of state capitol buildings around the country on Saturday. Threats notwithstanding, however, there were only a handful of incidents of minor violence at the protests, including some involving Proud Boys.
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Meanwhile, the national leadership of the violently pro-Trump Proud Boys-having been earlier urged by Trump during the first presidential debate to “stand by” during the election-signaled to members that they were “rolling out” because the “standby order has been rescinded.” A pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" rallygoer screams at a lone Biden supporter Saturday in Lansing, Michigan.ĭonald Trump’s most diehard, fanatical supporters-the ones who have been waving big Trump banners from their pickups and donning Proud Boys shirts to go with the MAGA hats-are following his example: refusing to acknowledge his election defeat at the hands of Joe Biden, muttering low threats, and generally throwing a petulant fit.Īround the nation this weekend, following Saturday’s vote tallies that put Joe Biden’s candidacy over the Electoral College finish line, smallish crowds gathered in front of state capitol buildings in “Stop the Steal” protests that had been fueled by Trump’s ongoing false claims to have won the election and organized on Facebook.