Supporters of President Donald Trump, conspiracy theorists, and members of far-right paramilitary groups who can’t handle the fact that Trump lost the election convened in Carson City Nevada, for a rally Saturday. Featured speakers at the rally included Monica Jaye, a right-wing media personality based in Reno. She disputed the results of the election and parroted Trump’s evidence-free claims of voter fraud, CapRadio [1] reports.
“Joe Biden is not your President-elect,” she said, and of course, provided no evidence for this claim. But that’s not unusual for these factually challenged individuals.
Biden has earned [2] at least 290 votes from the Electoral College, which only requires 270 votes for a presidential win. Trump is well behind with only 232 votes. Biden also easily captured the popular vote, with nearly 79 million votes to Trump’s just over 73 million votes. At this point, it’s eminently clear Biden will take office when Trump’s term ends in January.
But that’s lost on people like Jaye, who also used the occasion to plug her own political aspirations, noting that she plans to run against incumbent Republican Congressman Mark Amodei in 2022.
“Boogaloo Boi” Larry Witzig also attended the rally, where he demonstrated his support for Trump and the far-right [3] Three Percent militia network, Raw Story [4] notes. Witzig is an anti-government extremist who wants to fight a second Civil War.
“If this election fails, it’s time to boogaloo,” he said. “We’re going to fight.”
“If the left wants a war, we’ll give it to them.”
Earlier this year, two members who follow boogaloo ideology were charged [5] with killing two California law enforcement officers. Another group of these domestic terrorists (which is what they are) was arrested in Las Vegas for allegedly planning to attack Black Lives Matter protesters. The situation is also becoming more worrisome in Nevada, particularly Carson City, the state capital, where members [3] of the Proud Boys gang threatened to attack [6] BLM supporters and others whom they believe are Antifa members.
The situation has turned scary for some Reno residents who consider themselves counter-protesters. In one instance, Nikki, who didn’t want to give her last name for fear of reprisals, was allegedly targeted by members of the Proud Boys, who were trying to start a fight.
“They were telling me that they were going to knock my fucking teeth out,” she said. “Same with my kid.”
Nikki said she thinks the harassment lasted about an hour until the Proud Boys finally left. But she said she wasn’t going to back down because “most of these people are bark and no bite.”
Nevertheless, she noted many activists studiously avoided the area, just to be safe in case the tide turns.
“It has struck enough fear to where people are going to let this ride out, at least for a little while,” she said.
But no matter how much Witzig and his cohorts want to fight and protest, it doesn’t change the fact that Biden has won the election and will become the 46th President on January 21st, 2021. A fact is still a fact even if it makes you uncomfortable. How sad is it that these people are willing to hurt other people for something that they believe, even if it’s completely untrue?