{"id":44263,"date":"2020-11-14T18:25:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T18:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44263"},"modified":"2020-11-14T18:25:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T18:25:27","slug":"still-defiant-trump-greets-crowd-of-supporters-in-us-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44263","title":{"rendered":"Still defiant, Trump greets crowd of supporters in US capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump has greeted hundreds of supporters in the United States capital on Saturday, as the president still refuses to concede defeat to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden following the November 3 election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump was met by cheers and applause as his limousine drove from the White House onto Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday morning. Some attendees climbed walls and other structures for a view of the president\u2019s motorcade as it did a circuit around nearby Freedom Plaza.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators, who gathered as part of various events including what was dubbed a \u201cMillion MAGA [Make America Great Again] March\u201d, chanted \u201cUSA! USA!\u201d, \u201cWe want Trump! We want Trump!\u201d and \u201cFour more years! Four more years!\u201d.<\/p>\n

Echoing Trump himself, many of the Republican leader\u2019s supporters have refused to acknowledge the results of the US presidential election, saying they believe widespread fraud took place. That allegation has been dismissed by experts and election officials as baseless.<\/p>\n

Pro-Trump rallies were expected to take place in cities across the country on Saturday to show support for the president, who has only made one public address<\/a> since Biden was declared the winner of the vote last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Supporters of President Donald Trump cheer alongside the presidential motorcade at Freedom Plaza near the White House in Washington, DC [Tom Brenner\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

Marcher Darion Schaublin, 26, told AFP news agency that he drove from Columbus, Ohio to join the march in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole system\u2019s rigged \u2026 in the way that the information is getting to the people, it\u2019s filtered through these channels that makes it so that the truth never actually gets out,\u201d Schaublin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a good chance \u2026 he is not going to have a second term \u2013 and I\u2019m not sure of the legitimacy of that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Right-wing militia groups such as the Proud Boys<\/a> also planned to hold rallies in the capital on Saturday, prompting a heavy security presence in anticipation of clashes with anti-Trump protesters.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in protest against Saturday\u2019s march, opponents on social media sought to create confusion by flooding the hashtags #MillionMAGAMarch and #MarchforTrump with photographs of pancakes.<\/p>\n

\n

#MillionMAGAMarch<\/a> stay at home and enjoy your pancakes! pic.twitter.com\/8YO8yNF8r1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 KayElZee (@KayElZee) November 14, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Refusal to concede<\/h2>\n

US news organisations including the Associated Press projected Biden as the winner of the presidential election on November 7, but Trump has remained defiant, thus far refusing to concede or cooperate in the transition to a new administration.<\/p>\n

In the US, it is the norm for presidents to concede based on news organisations\u2019 projections.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s victory saw thousands of his supporters take to the streets<\/a> across the country, at times facing off with Trump supporters in key battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Trump campaign has launched a series of legal challenges<\/a> widely considered long shots. Meanwhile, Georgia has launched an audit of the state results in the presidential election, with Biden currently leading Trump by 14,000 votes there.<\/p>\n

Even without Georgia\u2019s 16 electoral votes, Biden leads Trump 290 electoral votes to 232 votes. Trump would need to change the results in several states to whittle down Biden\u2019s lead to below 270 electoral votes \u2013 the threshold for victory.<\/p>\n

Trump has so far refused to concede the presidential election, which is the norm after victory is projected for a candidate [Evan Vucci\/AP]<\/figure>\n

Trump, who has repeatedly falsely claimed victory in the contest, made passing acknowledgement of his precarious position during a press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell,\u201d said Trump, who has baselessly alleged widespread fraud and voting irregularities, a claim contradicted<\/a> by state election officials and his own intelligence officers.<\/p>\n

Biden, for his part, is pushing ahead with his transition and has given little attention to Trump\u2019s resistance, which he has called \u201can embarrassment<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

Biden said he will take office on January 20 and \u201cnothing\u2019s going to stop\u201d the transfer of power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has greeted hundreds of supporters in the United States capital on Saturday, as the president still refuses to concede defeat to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden following the November 3 election. Trump was met by cheers and applause as his limousine drove from the White House onto Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday morning. Some attendees…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}