Thousands of maskless rallygoers who refuse to accept the results of the election turned downtown Washington into a falsehood-filled spectacle today, two days before the electoral college will make the president’s loss official.
In smaller numbers than their gathering last month, they roamed from the Capitol to the Mall and back again, seeking inspiration from speakers who railed against the Supreme Court, Fox News and President-elect Joe Biden.
The crowds cheered for recently pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, marched with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and around midday, stood in awe of a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One.
“There he is! There is our guy!” a woman exclaimed, reaching toward the sky.
Today’s protest also comes just days before Electoral College meets to vote for president and vice president.
Biden is expected to have 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 votes.
A candidate needs 270 to win.
After railing on Twitter about the failure of his most-recent attempt to overturn the election results, Trump praised the crowd that gathered in his honor, tweeting “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal.
Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA,” he wrote.
Later in the day, attention was focused not on the president but on a group he once told to “stand back and stand by”: the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist organization with ties to white nationalism.
In helmets and bulletproof vests, hundreds of men in their ranks marched through downtown in militarylike rows, shouting “Move out” and “1776!”
They seemed intent on intimidating onlookers, and adopted a chant popular with counterprotesters: “Whose streets? Our streets.”
As the sun went down, their antics escalated.
A group of Proud Boys and pro-Trump demonstrators faced off with counterprotesters near Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Officers appeared in riot gear to divide the two sides as fireworks were thrown, causing small explosions.
When the groups splintered and roamed, police moved too, barricading streets with bikes and their bodies while determined not to give the two sides access to each other.
The Proud Boys became increasingly angry as they wove through streets and alleys, only to find police continuously blocking their course.
“Both sides of the aisle hate you now. Congratulations,” a Proud Boy shouted at the officers.
Counterprotesters also agitated police, with some throwing water bottles at the line of officers.
More than once, officers used their bikes and fired pepper spray to push the anti-Trumpers back, leaving at least three demonstrators flushing out their eyes with the help of medics.
At least six people have been arrested during Saturday’s demonstrations, in addition to five arrests resulting from a brawl Friday night.
A police officer was hit in the eyes with pepper spray midday Saturday, and another person was injured during an altercation on 3rd Street NW near Constitution Avenue.
The scuffles seemed poised to continue into the night in areas surrounding Black Lives Matter Plaza, which was partially blocked off by police.
The tension came as most of the day’s earlier rallygoers were on their way home or to hotels, after spending hours cheering for election fraud claims that have been disputed or debunked.
The majority-White crowd ranged from gray-haired men and women in red hats to children in wagons, one of whom chanted “100 more years!”