There is a group of Proud Boys outside the Trump rally with a sign calling for the release of everyone charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/PSLAHcIJsV
– Isaac Arnsdorf (@iarnsdorf) April 20, 2024
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said: “We don’t comment on stupid things. »
A Biden campaign spokesperson condemned Trump for emboldening violent extremists.
“When Trump told his supporters to stop the steal, they attacked the Capitol, violently assaulted police officers and attempted to overturn an election,” Biden spokesman Ammar Moussa said. “Now they’re back, standing tall once again as Trump threatens ‘bloodbath’ if he loses in November. This is Donald Trump’s America: where white nationalists and violent far-right extremists have power and working families are left behind.”
It was unclear whether the Proud Boys participated in the event, which was later canceled due to severe weather. They were seen walking away from the entrance and were not seen by a Washington Post reporter inside the event. The county sheriff’s deputy on scene said officers were aware of their presence.
The Proud Boys are a far-right group with a history of violence and they were heavily involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Their former national president, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, was sentenced to 22 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Capitol breach.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to pardon the rioters, without specifying who among the more than 1,000 people charged. He increasingly glorifies the January 6 defendants, calling them “patriots” and “hostages.” He recorded a duet of himself reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with incarcerated defendants on January 6 singing the national anthem, and has played that song repeatedly at his rallies.
Trump, whose baseless claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate inspired the attack on the Capitol, has never disavowed domestic political violence. When asked during a 2020 presidential debate to specifically condemn violent extremist groups such as the Proud Boys, Trump responded to “stand back and stand by.” Members of the group reacted on social media posts by celebrating the remark as a form of recognition.
The rally here was supposed to be Trump’s first major public speech since his trial began last Monday in New York. He is accused of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to an adult film star in a hush money scheme before the 2016 election. Jury selection concluded Friday; Opening arguments will begin next Monday.
The crowd waiting for Trump on the airport tarmac was similar in size to the audience at a rally here in 2022. Vendors sold T-shirts, posters and signs emblazoned with varying renderings of Trump’s photo. Trump, as well as vulgar signs, bumper stickers and shirts. directed at Biden, knives, sheets with the Confederate flag, shirts for the online extremist movement QAnon and MAGA visors with orange beanbags attached. A flag said “I’d rather be an American than a Democrat.” Another said: “Trump 2024: the rules have changed.”
Scott Presler, a well-known pro-Trump activist who focuses on voter turnout, also mingled with protesters as they waited in line. He and another woman were collecting signatures they believed would help independent Cornel West qualify for the ballot in North Carolina.
“This is helping to take votes away from Joe Biden,” Presler told an interested participant.
“We are helping the Trump team who are trying to get him in,” the woman added.
washingtonpost
