Tea party-linked activists protest against 'election fraud' in US cities
FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group that protested coronavirus lockdowns, and other groups organize rallies targeting Democratic cities
Supporters of Donald Trump rally in Detroit, Michigan, on Thursday. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/ReutersThe same rightwing activists that helped grow the Tea party movement and spread protests against coronavirus lockdowns are now organizing demonstrations alleging fraud outside vote-counting locations in Democratic cities.
Amplifying Donald Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats are trying to steal the election, established conservative players are encouraging citizens to show up to protest in person at locations where ballots are being counted, prompting concerns about intimidation of poll workers.
FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group backed by wealthy donors that played an influential role in the Tea Party movement, touted the appearance of protesters with their preprinted FreedomWorks signs in Detroit and Philadelphia on Thursday.
The group was advertising more protests in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Friday, as well as a “solidarity” protest in Oklahoma, a solidly red state whose votes for Trump are not being contested.
FreedomWorks was previously linked to the largest anti-shutdown protest group in Wisconsin this spring, Vox News reported.
Stop the Steal, a Facebook group alleging election fraud by Democrats, grew by more than 350,000 members in one day. The group’s moderators and administrations included Amy Kremer, a Tea party activist who went on to co-found Women for Trump, as well as two activists linked to the“We Build the Wall” campaign, a fundraising effort that led to arrest of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three other men for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of pro-Trump donors.
Facebook took down “Stop the Steal” on Thursday, saying that the group was “organized around the delegitimization of the election process” and that it had seen “worrying calls for violence from some members of the group”.
Stand Up Michigan, a more recent group that had a series of “freedom rallies” in Michigan opposing coronavirus restrictions, was also removed by Facebook after posts encouraging followers to show up at a ballot-counting location in Detroit on Wednesday to serve as ballot challengers.
Early protests by Trump supporters at election centers in Michigan and Arizona were small but volatile on Wednesday, with protesters in Detroit chanting, and a condemnation from Michigan’s secretary of state, who suggested that the protesters were a distraction and that they were attempting to intimidate election workers and keep them from doing their jobs.
By Thursday evening, protests around the country had grown more volatile, with far-right Proud Boys showing up to a “Stop the Biden Steal” rally in Miami, and armed protesters showing up to demonstrations by election facilities in Arizona and Nevada, according to local reporters.
In Miami, at one of four “Stop the Biden Steal” events being held simultaneously in the state, about 150 Trump supporters lined up in a car park by a roadside restaurant. Organizers placed a large speaker on the back of a truck, nestled by a yellow sign that read: “Stop Fraud.” Attendees listened, almost silently, as Trump espoused baseless claims in an attempt to undermine the outcome of the election.
Shortly after the speech Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys and state director of Latinos for Trump, addressed the crowd, pushing more baseless conspiracies about the election. The Proud Boys are an extremist organization with links to white supremacy.
“I want to ask you guys to stay in these streets,” he told the crowd after informing them he was traveling to Michigan on Friday, a state that has been a hotbed of militia activity in recent months.
In Philadelphia two men were being held outside the convention center where the vote count in the city is taking place after Philadelphia police were notified of the threat of an attack, CBS Philly reporrted.
Additional reporting by Oliver Laughland in Miami
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