WASHINGTON (AP) – Supporters of President Donald Trump are returning to Washington on Saturday for a pair of rallies to back his efforts to subvert the election results.
The rallies come a month after a pro-Trump demonstration that drew at least 10,000 people to the capital. The day began with Trump thrilling his supporters by driving by in his limousine and ended with scattered clashes between Trump supporters and local activists near Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Saturday’s rallies are meant as a show of force just two days before the Electoral College meets to formally elect Joe Biden as the next president. Trump refuses to concede the election, citing claims of fraud.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit to overturn Biden’s election victory, ending an attempt to get legal issues rejected by state and federal judges before the nation’s highest court.
One of the rallies will be at Freedom Plaza downtown and the other nearby on the National Mall. The event on the mall, dubbed the Jericho March, is described on its website as a several-hour “prayer rally” with a series of sermons and speakers “praying for the walls of corruption and election fraud to fall down.”
Organizers of the Freedom Plaza rally seem intent on avoiding confrontations, telling demonstrators to avoid certain hotels and marking off large chunks of downtown Washington as a “no-go zone.”
