Donald Trump: “We will never accept defeat”

Washington – The president Donald Trump promising that “we will never accept defeat” in speaking Wednesday at a rally of thousands of supporters shortly before Congress began a joint session to confirm Joe Biden’s election victory.

Trump took to the stage at the “Save America” rally, which drew thousands of supporters who flooded the nation’s capital as the president’s Republican allies in the House and Senate plans to oppose its November election defeat to Biden.

Trump urged Vice President Mike Pence, who will play a largely ceremonial role in the process, to prevent certification of Biden’s victory, even though the vice president does not have that power.

“Our country has already had enough,” Trump said. “We will not stand it anymore,” he added. Pence, however, challenged Trump by saying he has no authority to reject election votes that will give the presidency to Biden.

Lou Murray, a Boston life insurance salesman who came to the rally, said he and many others hope Congress will refrain from certifying the outcome of the election.

Organizers plan to march in the afternoon to the Capitol, where Congress will vote to confirm the results of the Electoral College, which Trump continues to question.

Several prominent Trump supporters were expected to attend the protests, which began Tuesday with a rally in Liberty Square, a few blocks from the White House. In this place, the protesters – many of them without masks – expressed their rejection of the vote of the Electoral College. As night fell, with the temperature dropping and under constant rain, hundreds of people continued in the square.

“I just came to support the president”, Said David Wideman, a 45-year-old firefighter who traveled from Memphis, Tennessee.

Widem acknowledged that he was “confused” by the series of defeats suffered by the president’s legal team in its attempt to reverse the election results and did not know what Trump’s remaining options were.

“I’m not sure what he can do right now, but I want to hear what he has to say,” Wideman said.

Trump tweeted his support for protesters: “Washington is being inundated by people who don’t want to see radical left-wing Democrats steal an election victory. Our country has had enough, they won’t support it anymore. ‘ we want) from the Oval Office. Make the United States big once again! “

Protests have forced local authorities and police agencies to prepare for possible violent clashes on the streets. Many of the capital’s downtown businesses walled up for fear that the protests would turn into riots similar to those in May and June, when dozens of establishments were vandalized.