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OAN Commentary by: Richard Pollock
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Donald Trump’s opponents appear to be planning potentially violent demonstrations that could rock the nation’s capital if the former President should win the 2024 election.
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This dark prospect emerges from current requests for a demonstration permit I obtained from the National Park Service (NPS), the federal agency which regulates legal demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
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NPS permit records show that nearly all the post-election and Inaugural Day permits have been filed by leftwing anti-Trump groups, including pro-Palestinian and “defend democracy” groups.
The applicants claim about 15,000 protesters could descend on Washington, D.C. on election night and up to 200,000 anti-Trump protests could arrive leading up to and including Inauguration Day, when the next President is sworn in.
On election night a group that calls itself “Defend Democracy Election Night Watch Party” states in its permit application that the event is an “election night watch event for advocates of democracy.” They report: “We’ll watch the election results live as they come in and speakers will talk about the importance of ensuring that every vote counts.” They will gather at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., a common place for demonstrations.
About another 10,000 people are expected to descend on Washington four days after the election for an event titled, “Rally to Defend Democracy.”
It’s also revealing that some anti-Trump activists already are planning some form of “resistance” on election night – a possible code word for violence.
Lacy MacAuley, a DC activist is quoted as coyly telling the Washington Post that her planned demonstration on election night could result in “feisty resistance.”
MacAuley is a dedicated political organizer and once was part of a group called Disrupt J20 that attempted to interrupt the 2017 Trump Inauguration.
Her group’s aims at the time were described in an interview with Legba Carrefour, a DisruptJ20 organizer.
She told the website called “Interviews for Resistance” that her group was “an umbrella coalition of groups with a core of local organizers who have a lot of activist experience. Washington, D.C. organizers … most of whom are anarchists. … The idea … is we want to undermine Trump’s presidency from the get-go. There has been a lot of talk of peaceful transition of power as being a core element in a democracy and we want to reject that entirely and really undermine the peaceful transition,” she said in a website titled “Interviews for Resistance.”
MacAuley is quoted by the Post as candidly saying about the 2024 election night: “That kind of feisty resistance, I believe, is what we are going to see again if Donald Trump wins the election.” She said her demonstration would represent “anger or fear over another Trump presidency.”
This kind of rhetoric has largely been buried by legacy media outlets. Instead, they have widely predicted election-related violence engineered by angry Trump supporters.
However, the only genuine political violence so far has been two assassination attempts on the former President.
And the only election-related violence to date was when election ballot boxes were destroyed with incendiary devices in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. And the assailants wrote “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” on the boxes. Not exactly a MAGA expression.
ABC News reported that the violence was being committed by an experienced metalworker who may be planning more attacks: “The man suspected of setting fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks, authorities said Wednesday.”
Another dire warning of potential election violence comes from Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network which organized demonstrations at the Republican and Democratic Conventions.
He issued a chilling warning in an interview with the Post, predicting pro-Palestinian activists would negatively respond to a Trump Presidency on election day. “The whole world will be watching on that day, and we’re not going to allow them only to watch a celebration,” he warned. “We want to force them to be watching the mass movement.”
While some election night protests will occur in D.C., it appears anti-Trump Inauguration Day activities currently may be the major focal point for protesters.
The NPS documents suggest the city will be flooded with more than 200,000 anti-Trump protesters leading up to and including Inauguration Day, set for January 20.
On October 16, four days before the Inauguration, about 100,000 protesters are predicted to descend on Washington four days before the actual Inauguration. This demonstration is titled “Shadow Inaugural of Donald Trump.”
Rev. Mark Thompson is requesting the NPS permit. There is a website for a Rev. Mark Thompson that describes him as an MSNBC commentator for 12 years who “has spent most of his life in public ministry as a political, civil rights & human rights activist and organizer.” I have reached out the pastor, but I have not heard from him as of this posting.
On October 18, another 50,000 are planning to attend a protest titled, ”Mobilization to protect the Climate and Our Democracy,” according to NPS documents. That same day, another 10,000 people are expected to attend a demonstration “in support of Progressive Issues,” according to the Park Service.
On October 19, the leftwing, anti-American group called the ANSWER Coalition, which has sponsored numerous pro-Palestinian rallies, is planning their rally.
ANSWER was the prime sponsor of a pro-Palestinian rally last July when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking before a Joint Session of Congress. That rally descended into violence, including attacks on police officers, the burning of American flags and the desecration of monuments, including one with a graffiti message on a monument warning, “Hamas Is Coming.”
Ryan Mauro, an extremism expert with the Capital Research Center told me the ANSWER Coalition “means at least 279 groups are a part of this protest and over 70% of them are pro-terrorism and/or Marxist or anarchist in ideology, as I concluded in my study of the network.”
On Inauguration Day itself a group called the “January 20 Coalition” plans to send 5,000 protesters to the Inaugural. According to their own filing with the NPS, the coalition states it was the group behind a violent pro-Palestinian demonstration at Democratic National Committee headquarters in November 2023.
At the time, six DC police officers were sent to the hospital with injuries, according to local news reports. The Capitol Police said that the protesters, which numbered at 300 according to its organizers, were “illegally and violently protesting” outside the Democratic Party’s headquarters.
The only potentially pro-Trump demonstration is scheduled for January 19. That’s the date for the annual “March for Life” demonstration that marks the date of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion. As in previous years, this anti-abortion rally is expected to attract 150,000 people.
Interestingly, the number of angry and potentially violent anti-Trump events that are currently planned does contrast with the many warnings we’ve received from the mainstream press that violence certainly will occur if Trump should prevail next week.
Examples of the shrill, pre-election warnings about Trump abound.
Just two examples.
On MSNBC Joe Scarborough exclaimed that Trump will trigger a civil war: “This is an increasingly desperate person, an increasingly desperate family, who’s preparing for civil war. They just are,” he warned his viewers.
And recently, Politico raised the ante further with an article titled, “‘The Very Real Scenario Where Trump Loses and Takes Power Anyway.”
Stay tuned…
(Views expressed by guest commentators may not reflect the views of OAN or its affiliates.)
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