Supporters of President Donald Trump held a rally on Saturday (March 4) in Washington, D.C., as a counterpoint to a wave of protests, which have taken place since his election in November.
The rally started near the Washington Monument with supporters marching to the White House.
“I don’t think he’s against immigrants,” said a man named David who refrained from giving his surname. “You can’t open up the floodgates to the world’s poor. We don’t have that many jobs.”
He also said he believed former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump’s phone before the November election. “Treason,” David said. “I believe he is Muslim. I believe he wanted to destroy this country.”
Lee Griffin from Richmond, Virginia, said someone had to be held accountable for the alleged wiretapping. “Somebody’s going to go to jail. And somebody should.”
Trump accused predecessor Barack Obama on Saturday of wiretapping him during the late stages of the 2016 election campaign, but offered no evidence for an allegation, which an Obama spokesman said was “simply false.”
Trump made the accusation in a series of early morning tweets just weeks into his administration and amid rising scrutiny of his campaign’s ties to Russia.
Organizers of the Spirit of America rallies in at least 28 of the country’s 50 states had said they expected smaller turnouts than the huge crowds of anti-protesters that clogged the streets of Washington, D.C., and other cities the day after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Their predictions appeared to be correct, as they were on Monday when similar rallies were held. In many towns and cities, the rallies did not draw more than a few hundred people, and some were at risk of being outnumbered by small groups of anti-Trump protesters that gathered to shout against the rallies.
Phil Capron from nearby Virginia weighed in on Vice President Mike Pence saying there was “no comparison whatsoever” between his use of a private email account for state business while he was governor of Indiana and the email woes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“No offense to the great state of Indiana. I don’t think they’re talking about anything of national import(ance) within those emails. But as someone who holds a security clearance, I don’t believe the secretary of state doing all that business on an easily accessible to foreign operatives server, it’s just not the same,” said Capron.
Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in government became a major point of criticism against her as the Democratic nominee during the 2016 presidential election by Pence, the running mate of President Donald Trump, and others involved in the Republican campaign.
(REUTERS)