Anti-Trump protests erupt in US ahead of electors’ convention
Anti-Donald Trump demonstrators have staged rallies in several US cities ahead of the Electoral College members’ convention to finalize the 2016 presidential election outcome.
On Sunday, a large number of protesters in Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles and Denver denounced the Republican president-elect’s campaign rhetoric toward immigrants and minority groups.
The rallies were held on the occasion of International Migrants Day. Trump has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants after taking office in January 2017.
Opponents of Trump, including documentary filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, have called to hold demonstrations against Trump.
On Saturday, Moore asked Americans to get out and stop Trump from being inaugurated as president of the US, before it is too late.
He urged people to manifest their anger into action with protests and civil disobedience.
He told MSNBC the new strategy to stop Trump must be one of “protesting, obstructing, disrupting.”
“Listen, we’re hours away now from the Electoral College coming together on Monday. This needs protest, this needs people’s voices,” argued Moore, who had predicted Trump’s victory back in July.
All 538 Electoral College electors will convene at governors’ offices and state capitols across the US today (Monday) to officially elect Trump as the 45th president of the United States.
Under the US Constitution, the president is not elected through popular vote. Instead, American voters vote for members of the Electoral College who elect the president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. A majority of 270 electoral votes are required to elect the president.
Though he lost the popular vote to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes in the Nov. 8 election, Trump won enough states to claim 306 electoral votes to emerge as the victor.
This year’s Electoral College vote will come amidst what officials describe as a serious challenge to the legitimacy of the election process, including evidence of foreign intervention and influence.
After weeks of internal bickering, the consensus view within the US intelligence community now is that Russia interfered in the election through cyber attacks not just to destabilize the electoral system but to help get Trump elected.
Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. But he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored Democratic candidate in the presidential election.
In the days after he was declared the winner in the November 8 election, thousands of people held rallied in cities across the US to protest against Trump’s victory, condemning his controversial campaign rhetoric against Muslims, immigrants, women and other groups.
The real estate mogul’s controversial comments include a call to ban all Muslims from coming to America as well as stopping Mexican migrants by building a long wall along the US-Mexico border.
He has also sought a database to track Muslims across the United States and said that the US would have “absolutely no choice” but to close down mosques.
