WASHINGTON DC— A few blocks from the Capitol in Washington DC, where this Wednesday a mob of protesters instigated by the president, Donald Trump, broke in with violence and paralyzed the operation of Congress for an hour, there was a parallel day.
A crowd of supporters of the president rallied in support of his claims,
not supported by any evidence so far
, that there was cheating in the November elections, where Democrat Joe Biden took the White House from him.
In the midst of an even festive atmosphere, there was space for photos and even a dance.
“We just ask for a recount.
And if Biden won, we accept it ”, said one of those present.
It was the day that the United States Congress had to validate Biden's victory in the presidential election last November.
But things turned violent in the vicinity of the Capitol and inside the building, after a group of supporters took over the building.
The vice president, Mike Pence, and some congressmen
were evacuated
, others had to hide in their offices for hours.
[Democrats gain control of the Senate by winning both seats in Georgia. Joe Biden will govern with the majority of his party in Congress]
A woman, identified as Ashli Babbitt by KSND, an affiliate of our sister network NBC, was
fatally shot inside the building
by Capitol Police.
Three other people died of "medical emergencies" outside the building during the riots, according to Washington DC police.
Three supporters of Donal Trump from Michigan, this Wednesday in Washington DC Milli Legrain / Noticias Telemundo
Just hours earlier, from Ellipse Park, at the back of the White House, calling for electoral fraud, Trump had encouraged his followers to walk to the Capitol.
"We are never going to give up," said the president, "those of us here today do not want to see the radical democrats steal our electoral victory from us."
In addition, for several days the president had been saying, erroneously, that the Constitution of the United States gave the vice president, host of the session in Congress, the power to reject the certification of the electoral results.
Some Republican congressmen, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, were expected to oppose declaring Biden's victory as president on Wednesday, which was expected to delay the vote until Thursday, but not change the final result.
In the end, the session could not go as planned due to unforeseen events.
It resumed at around 8 pm local time, and was still underway at dawn this Thursday.
On video: The moment when Trump asked his followers to "march to the Capitol"
Jan. 6, 202101: 15
What was planned
Local authorities had issued a permit for a demonstration with up to 30,000 participants.
The mayor of Washington herself, Muriel Bowser, called on the residents of the capital to stay away from the center, fearing clashes between city residents and members of the Proud Boys,
a far-right group with a history of violent acts in the past
, including the burning of a Black Lives Matter flag from a historic black church.
But Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, was banned from entering the city after being arrested on Monday.
And although a large group of members of this group were seen in the city, they were not the ones who ended up starring in the violent events in the Capitol.
There are indications that the events had been planned online for weeks.
"We have weapons but today we have left them at home"
The day's events kicked off peacefully, with crowds of protesters from states as far away as Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kentucky or the closest Pennsylvania and Virginia.
A huge crowd of
men, women, old and young, many of them in families
, most of them white but also numerous Asians and some blacks and Hispanics quickly occupied the center of the American capital.
Despite the health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most did not wear a mask, and the atmosphere was happy, even festive.
Several expressed their dissatisfaction with the November electoral result and their unfounded conviction that there was fraud.
Still, a protester from Fayetteville, North Carolina, said: "Trump people are happy."
Despite reports that several Trump protesters were armed and seeing many of them holding long sticks in hand, the woman was surprised: “We have weapons but today we have left them at home.
We know they are prohibited in Washington. "
[The woman fatally shot in Congress was a war veteran]
“They say that in towns with 50,000 inhabitants, 100,000 people voted, how is that possible?” Asked Kenneth Simmons, a retired police officer from the same state.
It is one of the conspiracy theories circulating on social networks and among Trump followers that people could have voted with the identity cards of deceased persons, a circumstance never proven in court.
Despite this, Simmons
assured that he would accept Biden's victory if it were declared in Congress
.
Retired North Carolina police officer Kenneth Simmons, supporter of President Donald Trump.Milli Legrain / Telemundo News
Also in the crowd were three Christian women from Michigan, a 14-hour car ride.
They were convinced that Trump, and not Biden, had won the election and surprised that Trump's multiple demands to expose alleged fraud in different states have not been successful in the courts.
"We are here for the Bible, for America and as patriots, more than for Trump," Angela Drayton said.
"Although Trump has been the most pro-life president we have ever had," he added.
The festive atmosphere revealed a
certain disconnect between the violent acts inside the Capitol and the atmosphere on the street
.
Ignoring the assault on democracy that was taking place ten blocks away, an elderly woman allowed herself to be photographed next to an actress posing as the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, in a garbage can.
Others snapped their photos in front of a giant truck holding up banners of all the Trump campaign slogans and clichés from "Build a Wall" to "Drain the Swamp."
A couple danced to the YMCA, a song already appropriated by the Trump campaign.
Meanwhile,
the police found five weapons inside the building and arrested three people
.
Another 12 had been arrested in previous days in connection with the events expected for Wednesday.
"The last time a government building was attacked it was the English in the 19th century," says a congresswoman
Jan. 7, 202103: 39
Police officials across the country criticized the actions of law enforcement in Washington on Wednesday for failing to avoid chaos on Capitol Hill: some said police were "totally off guard" and others called the response "embarrassing," according to our sister network NBC News.
Of course, given the events, a
curfew
was decreed
in the city at 6 pm
.
Faced with the closure of numerous downtown streets, the city's public transport suffered delays.
At 4 pm, numerous cafeteria and restaurant workers, many of them people of color, were seen waiting for the bus to take them home.
"It's that I live two hours from here" said one of them.
Civil rights organizations were quick to criticize how those who took over the United States Congress, most of them white, were peacefully escorted out of the building.
"Only white privilege lets you go that far," commented a black man on Twitter, while a photo of a white man smiling and sitting comfortably in the office of Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi went viral on social media. in his desk.
With information from NBC News (also in this case).