Page 7 - Turmoil in America: The 2020 Election

chair of the Federal Election Commis-
sion, the federal agency that serves “One of the points of the
as a watchdog over campaign fund- Electoral Count Act is to con-
raising and spending. strain the vice president . . .
and make it clear that he’s a
Speech on the Ellipse presider, not a decider.” 43

Now that it was clear Trump lacked — Trevor Potter, former chair of the
the votes in Congress to overturn Federal Election Commission
the Electoral College result and that
Pence would not block the fi nal count
of the offi cial results, the outgoing president made a fi nal plea to
his most ardent supporters. He urged them to reject Biden’s vic-
tory. Trump announced his plans to make a speech on January 6
at the Ellipse, a public park in Washington, DC, just a few blocks
from the Capitol. The rally was organized by a group calling it-
self Stop the Steal. Composed of Trump supporters, the group’s
name was drawn from a slogan Trump had concocted over the
previous weeks, suggesting that Biden’s allies had rigged the out-
come of the election and were stealing the presidency from him.
When the crowd of about a hundred thousand people started
forming on the Ellipse that morning, it was clear that a number of
the attendees were from the White supremacist movement. This
was the same movement that had spawned the Proud Boys and
similar groups that Trump had repeatedly refused to denounce dur-
ing his presidency. Trump took the stage at about noon. During his
speech to the crowd, he said he still had no intention of conced-
ing the election to Biden. “You don’t concede when there’s theft
involved,” Trump declared. “Our country has had enough. We will
not take it anymore.” 44
He then urged the crowd to march
to the Capitol and demand that Con-
gress overturn the results of the Elec- “You don’t concede when
toral College. He told the crowd, “If there’s theft involved.” 44
you don’t fi ght like hell you’re not go- —Donald Trump
ing to have a country anymore.” 45

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