President pressures vice-president to subvert democracy while Washington DC prepares for protests planned by Trump supporters
Donald Trump is intensifying pressure on Mike Pence to subvert democracy and overturn the election result when Congress meets on Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden’s victory.
The president has been hyping the congressional tally of electoral college votes as a dramatic last stand and urged supporters to stage “wild” street demonstrations in Washington. In reality, Biden’s win is a foregone conclusion and the vice-president’s ceremonial role as presiding officer has been likened to an awards host opening envelopes.
Even so, defying norms to the end, Trump falsely insists that Pence can intervene and change the outcome. At a rally in Dalton, Georgia, ahead of Tuesday’s crucial Senate runoff elections, the president said: “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us ... He’s a great guy. Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him quite as much.”
He followed up with a tweet on Tuesday that wrongly claimed: “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” Experts were quick to point out that the vice-president has no such power and there is no evidence of election fraud.
Pence has arguably been the most ardently loyal member of the administration, bridging a gap between Trump’s cult of personality and traditional conservatives, but now finds himself in a quandary as he weighs his own presidential ambitions in 2024. Democrats and moderate Republicans are calling on him to finally put the constitution before his own boss.
At his own rally in Milner, Georgia, on Monday, Pence said: “I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.”
Biden won the White House in November with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, with a margin of more than 7m in the popular vote. Congress will meet to rubber-stamp those results in what is usually a low-key formality, the final step before Biden is sworn in on 20 January.
But 13 Republican senators and more than a hundred House Republicans have said they intend to object to the results, a vivid display of Trump’s continued grip on the party. This will not change the outcome but does raise the prospect of political theatre that could run late into the night.
Objections to a state’s result will halt the count and trigger up to two hours of debate in both the House and Senate, followed by votes on whether to sustain or dismiss the objection. Trump’s allies do not have sufficient numbers in either chamber to invalidate Biden’s victories but, by raising multiple objections in multiple states, threaten to drag out a process already slowed by coronavirus restrictions.
Along with divisions in his own party, Trump has also been actively stirring up trouble on the street. Washington DC has mobilised the national guard to help police planned protests by his supporters in the lead-up to the congressional vote.
Amid fears of violence, Washington’s chief of police and mayor have issued warnings that the carrying of firearms to the protests is illegal and urged residents to avoid the areas where far-right groups, including the Proud Boys, are planning to gather.
Officials said 300 local national guard members would be deployed to help police, although they would not be carrying weapons.
Trump supporters are planning to rally on Tuesday and Wednesday, seeking to bolster the president’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and following suggestions he might make an appearance at one rally – at the Ellipse, close to the White House.
Restrictions on carrying guns have been introduced for the area from Monday to Thursday this week in addition to Washington DC’s already tough firearms regulations.
The city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, also issued a reminder that carrying firearms was illegal while in National Park Service areas, including the National Mall and Freedom Plaza, two areas protesters are expected to gather. Open possession of a firearm is also illegal throughout the city.
The moves come as Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, was arrested in Washington DC and charged with destruction of property – a charge related to a previous pro-Trump protest – and for being in possession of two illegal magazines of ammunition and a high-capacity feeding device.
According to a report in the Washington Post last week, figures in the Proud Boys – which the FBI has said has “ties to white nationalism” – had encouraged members to drop their signature black T-shirts to better avoid detection.
“The Proud Boys will turn out in record numbers on 6 Jan but this time with a twist,” Tarrio said on the messaging service Parler before his arrest. “We will not be wearing our traditional black and yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams.”
Other unnamed figures discussed their hopes for violence at the rallies on social media.
Washington DC police have posted signs throughout the downtown area warning that carrying any sort of firearm is illegal and its acting police chief, Robert Contee, asked residents to tell authorities of anyone who might be armed. “There are people intent on coming to our city armed,” Contee said on Monday.
Concern has been mounting after previous pro-Trump rallies late last year involving the same groups ended with a spate of stabbings and several churches with a history of black worship were vandalised.
Far-right groups have also discussed on social media how to avoid laws that ban openly carrying weapons in DC and on federal land to bring guns close to the White House.
Trump has repeatedly encouraged this week’s protests and hinted that he may get personally involved. Over the weekend, he retweeted a promotion for the rally with the message: “I will be there. Historic day!”
During a press conference on Monday, Bowser also asked local residents to stay away from downtown DC, and avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight”.
Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
In a statement on Monday evening, Washington DC’s attorney general, Karl Racine, also condemned groups that planned to incite violence at the protests, referring to them as entities that “promote hate on a racial and religious basis”.
He said: “While we respect their right to protest, we will not tolerate criminal behaviour – and we should deny them the opportunity to cause chaos.”
At previous pro-Trump protests, police have sealed off Black Lives Matter Plaza itself, but the confrontations spilled out on to the surrounding streets.
Expected attendees include high-level Trump supporters such as the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, and the Republican strategist Roger Stone, whose three-year prison sentence was commuted by Trump. Stone was convicted of repeatedly lying to Congress during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Associated Press contributed to this report
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