Supporters of President Donald Trump and counter-protesters are getting into fights and clashes in the streets of downtown Washington, D.C., Saturday night after thousands of the president's supporters rallied earlier in the day to protest election results they say are fraudulent.
One person was stabbed when a fight broke out between two large groups at 10th Street and New York Avenue NW about 8:30 p.m., a spokesperson for D.C. Fire and EMS said. Medics took the person with critical injuries to a trauma center, the spokesperson said.
Fire officials said the fight was related to the ongoing protests. Authorities have not given any information yet about a possible suspect in the stabbing.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office said police have arrested a total of 20 people since demonstrations began midday, and two police officers were injured. The extent of their injuries is unclear at this time.
Police were responding to numerous reports of fights between protesters downtown Saturday night.
Ten of the arrests included four people arrested for firearms violations, two for simple assault, one person for assaulting a police officer, one person for "no permit" and two people for acting disorderly, the Metropolitan Police Department said. It's unclear at this time if those arrested were Trump supporters or counter protesters.
Police recovered seven guns during the pro-Trump rally, Bowser's office said.
The march was largely peaceful during the day before turning tense at night, with multiple confrontations as small groups of 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.
Three Trump supporters were at a restaurant at 16th and K streets NW when someone set off fireworks in their direction, News4's Shomari Stone reports. Video shows people covering their ears and jumping as the fireworks exploded right above them.
At one point, a group dressed in all black and carrying black umbrellas began approaching a group of Trump supporters who were standing outside the Capitol Hilton Hotel on 16th Street NW, Stone reports. Police then got between the Trump demonstrators and counter protesters and moved the counter protesters back.
Some streets downtown remained closed as demonstrations continue.
Speakers at the rally earlier in the day asserted, without providing evidence, that there was fraud in the 2020 election. Election officials in several states have said the election was secure.
Thousands of Trump supporters gathered to protest the election results exactly one week after Joe Biden was declared president-elect. News4's Derrick Ward reports.
Congresswoman-elect from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Green, who garnered attention this week when refusing to wear a mask during her orientation on Capitol Hill, derided the recount of the presidential vote happening in her home state.
Then, she called for the crowd to march to the Supreme Court while speakers blared the Village People song "YMCA," which became a favorite at Trump rallies leading up to the election.
“I just want to keep up his spirits and let him know we support him,” one loyalist, 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.
A week after Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election, demonstrations in support of Trump took place in other cities. Fury at the prospect of a transfer of executive power showed no signs of abating, taking a cue the president's unrelenting assertion of victory in a race he actually lost.
In Photos: President Trump's Supporters Protest in DC
Many vendors and dozens of people carrying flags and wearing red Make America Great Again hats and shirts arrived early and a sea of cheering people had gathered on Freedom Plaza by the time the event kicked off at noon.
Within an hour of the event officially beginning, people were seen shoving and pushing against each other in some parts of the crowd. A D.C. police officer was seen getting in the middle of one scuffle.
One man told News4 he had been punched in the face by one of the pro-Trump rally attendees.
“Well, this is my city. I didn’t come down here to cause problems,” he said.
Closer to the stage, people listened to speakers making baseless claims of fraud in the election and promising to fight for President Trump.
Conservative activist Scott Presler said the crowd had Trump's back.
Before speakers took the stage, the presidential motorcade emerged to drive a lap around the gathering crowd. Trump had teased the appearance on social media and called the rally "heartwarming."
About a dozen pro-Trump groups, including Million MAGA March and Stop the Steal DC, planned to rally.
“I saw this thing and it was like ‘save the vote,’ ‘protect the vote’ and I just want to show my support for it. It’s important that we protect democracy,” one attendee said.
One group that promoted the rally on social media, the Proud Boys, has faced extra scrutiny. The Southern Poverty Law Center defines them as a hate group.
Supporters of President Donald Trump plan to protest the election results Saturday. News4's Shomari Stone reports.
After receiving complaints that an alleged Proud Boys member had booked an Airbnb near the rally, the company told customers that they canceled his reservation and banned him from the platform.
"Anyone affiliated with hate groups has no place on Airbnb," the company said on Twitter.
Large groups of protesters have officials in D.C. worried that we could see an explosion in COVID-19 cases. Several demonstrations are planned this weekend to dispute the outcome of the presidential election, and there will also be counterprotesters. News4's Darcy Spencer reports.
Trump supporters gathered near the White House Friday ahead of the demonstrations.
There were some arguments and tense moments with Trump supporters and counterprotesters shouting at each other Friday evening, and it wasn’t just over voting results. Some questioned Trump supporters who weren’t wearing face masks.
“I just hope that when [President Trump's supporters] come down here it won’t be any hatred, it won’t be any malice. They’ll just do it peacefully and no one gets hurt. That’s all that I hope for,” one woman in downtown D.C. said.
Based on social media promotions for the rallies, most of the groups appear to be right-wing supporters of President Donald Trump who dispute the election results. News4's Justin Finch reports.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said D.C. police were monitoring a caravan of Trump supporters who are reportedly headed from Texas to D.C.
Police warned against taking guns to the rallies.
“We see some folks that are communicating on social media suggesting that they’re going to bring firearms into our city,” D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said. “You cannot open carry in the District of Columbia, anywhere in the District of Columbia.”
It is only legal to carry a firearm outside the home in the District with a D.C.-issued concealed carry permit, Newsham said, but even with such a permit, firearms are prohibited in the areas where the demonstrations will take place.
Supporters of President Donald Trump plan to protest the election results this weekend. News4's Shomari Stone reports.
Police released a list of more than 30 streets around the White House, U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court that will be closed all day Saturday, as well as extensive parking restrictions downtown all weekend.
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