2020 Race: Stabbings on streets as Electoral College votes

Protests by Donald Trunp’s supporters turned violent as the Electoral College prepared to conclude the election process.

President Trump continued to deny he had lost the election as protests by his supporters turned violent in Washington and state representatives appointed to confirm the result prepared to conclude the process.

Police said four people had been taken to hospital with serious stab wounds and 23 people were arrested.

Tuesday’s meeting of the Electoral College is regarded as the end for the legal challenges and fraud claims from Mr Trump and his allies that have been dismissed by courts across the land and were rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday night.

The refusal by the highest court to hear a suit filed by the state of Texas, asking it to throw out the election results in four crucial states Mr Trump lost, prompted protests by his supporters in several cities on Saturday.

As the crowd mustered in a Washington square and was addressed by Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who admitted lying to the FBI but was recently pardoned by the president, Mr Trump flew over them in the Marine One helicopter.

“That’s pretty cool,” Flynn said. “I imagine just being able to jump in a helicopter and go for a joy ride around Washington.”

In fact Mr Trump was flying to the military academy at West Point, but his social media manager Dan Scavino posted a photograph of the crowd apparently taken from the helicopter as it swung over their heads with the caption: “Thank you Patriots!”

President @realDonaldTrump flies over Freedom Plaza in Marine One, before heading north to West Point for the #ArmyNavyGame.

THANK YOU, PATRIOTS❤️🇺🇸🦅 pic.twitter.com/cczbTXBSN4

— Dan Scavino🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) December 12, 2020

Mr Trump was attending the annual American football game between teams fielded by the US army and navy. “There are thousands of people out there,” he told a reporter from Fox News outside the stadium before claiming the president-elect Joe Biden and his campaign had somehow skewed votes in several cities in swing states.

“But your guys have been unable to prove it as of now,” the reporter, Brian Kilmeade said. “We’ve proven it,” Mr Trump replied. “No judge including the Supreme Court of the US has had the courage to allow it to be heard.”

Asked if he worried about dividing the country, Mr Trump replied: “No, I worry about the country having an illegitimate president.”

His supporters had called their protest on the National Mall the “Jericho March”, in which they would pray “for the walls of corruption and election fraud to fall”. An estimated 10-15,000 people gathered, mostly without masks, to hear speakers including the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and a podcaster named David Harris Jr who told the crowd that if there was a civil war “we’re the ones with all the guns,” according to The Washington Post.

Later Trump loyalists including the far-right group known as the Proud Boys marched through the capital shouting “1776!” and “Move out!” and clashed with counter-protesters. On Sunday Mr Trump continued to claim, without evidence, that he was the victim of a “swing state hustle”.

The fact that the Supreme Court wouldn’t find standing in an original jurisdiction matter between multiple states, and including the President of the States, is absurd. It is enumerated in the Constitution...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2020

...They just “chickened out” and didn’t want to rule on the merits of the case. So bad for our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2020

He appeared to retain the support of senior Republicans in Congress, where more than 120 members of the House of Representatives including its minority leader Kevin McCarthy supported the Texas lawsuit and its disproven allegations against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

On Sunday the Republican House minority whip Steve Scalise told Fox News Sunday that the Supreme Court had not ruled on the merits of the case. Asked if he would acknowledge the victory of Joe Biden once the Electoral College had met to confirm it, he said that Republicans should “let the legal process play out”.

That process could yet include an effort by a group of Trump allies to challenge the result on the floor of the House of Representatives on January 6: the date when Mike Pence, the vice president, is supposed to tally the results and announce the victor.

But Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, told The New York Times that he and a number of allies were considering an effort to challenge election results in five states won by Mr Biden. “We have a superior role under the constitution than the Supreme Court does, than any federal court judge does, than any state court judge does,” he said. “What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”

Such challenges would require the signature of a senator and it would then need the agreement of both the Democrat-controlled House and the Senate, where the Republicans hold a slim majority and several of the party’s senators have said they would not support such a move. Constitutional experts predicted it would fail though it could succeed in focusing the spotlight on Mr Pence, the vice president, as he faces the awkward duty of having to declare that Mr Trump lost the election.

Mr Trump has hinted he may run again for the presidency in 2024 and a refusal to accept the election results has steadily become a loyalty test for Republican politicians fearful of facing a backlash from his base. Those who have defended the integrity of the election have been attacked by Mr Trump, who called on supporters over the weekend to turn against Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, and Doug Ducey, governor of Arizona and “vote them out of office!”

The Republican senator Lamar Alexander said the election results should be accepted once the Electoral College casts its votes today (Monday). “The states have counted, certified their votes,” he told NBC. “The courts have resolved the disputes. It looks like the electors will vote for Joe Biden. And when they do, I hope he puts the country first – I mean, the president – that he takes pride in his accomplishments, that he congratulates the president-elect and he helps him get off to a good start, especially in the middle of this pandemic.”

The Times