Published 16:18 IST, November 9th 2020
Trump supporters protest against election result citing misinformation as 'evidence'
In the aftermath of major US media outlets declaring Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of presidential elections, Donald Trump's supporters began protesting.
In the aftermath of major US media outlets declaring Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of presidential elections against Donald Trump, supporters of the Republican leadership protested against the result on the weekend in the state of Pennsylvania, that ultimately tipped off the election in favour of the President-elect. With misinformation campaigns running on social media and quickly catching the viral fire, it has not ceased to exist only on the platforms but has also turned to the streets of the United States.
Convinced by the remarks made by Trump that the election is ‘stolen’ from him by the Democrats and the “lamestream” media, Trump supporters gathered displaying banners that said, “Stop the Steal”. As per the CNN report, one woman from the demonstrators even told the reporter that she had seen so much “evidence” that the US Election 2020 was ‘rigged’ and would support total re-vote.
The same woman according to media outlet cited the video that showed an unidentified man burning bags of ballots “for Trump” and said that “there’s a problem”. However, the clip that she mentioned as the so-called evidence as already been official refuted as “fake” by the officials. The video had gone viral on social media and was even tweeted by US President’s son, Eric Trump which showed ballots papers being burned. It was later clarified that they were not the votes meant for Donald Trump, but were sample ballots in Virginia.
"Note the absence of the bar code markings that are on all official ballots. The ballots in the video were sample ballots," the City of Virginia Beach said in a press release last week.
Trump plans rallies to protest against election result
While Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is declared as the projected winner of the US election 2020, incumbent Donald Trump is showing reluctance in conceding and has even planned campaign-style rallies to contest the result of the election. Trump and his Republican allies have refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory. While Trump gave no sign of graciously accepting the outcome, his campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh, on November 8, said that the 45th president will hold a series of rallies to build support for the legal fights challenging the outcome.
Trump has announced teams to pursue recounts in several states and he will also seek to back up his unfounded accusations of voting fraud by highlighting obituaries of dead people that the campaign said voted in the election. Murtaugh did not inform when the rallies would resume, however, he did assure that the Republican leader will legally challenge the outcome. Donald Jr and Eric have also been urging the allies to continue supporting Donald’s rejection to the results along with major American media outlets who projected Biden as the winner on November 7.
Updated 16:17 IST, November 9th 2020