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Trump Supporters Swarm Statehouses Across US; Some Evacuated

Associated Press

   SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO - Supporters of President Donald Trump massed
   outside statehouses from Georgia to New Mexico on Wednesday, leading
   some officials to evacuate while cheers rang out at several
   demonstrations as a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

   Hundreds of people gathered in state capitals nationwide to oppose
   President-elect Joe Biden's win, waving signs saying, "Stop the steal"
   and "Four more years." Most of them did not wear masks amid the
   coronavirus pandemic, and some carried guns in places like Oklahoma,
   Georgia, Arizona and Washington state.

   There were some scuffles in states like Ohio and California, with some
   instances of journalists or counterprotesters being pepper-sprayed or
   punched. But most demonstrations were peaceful -- some of them quite
   small -- and only a few arrests were reported.

   New Mexico police evacuated staff as a precaution from a Statehouse
   building that includes the governor's office and the secretary of
   state's office, shortly after hundreds of flag-waving supporters
   arrived in a vehicle caravan and on horseback.

   Demonstrators sang God Bless America,honked horns and wrongly announced
   on a megaphone that Trump was the rightful election winner -- though
   Biden won the vote in New Mexico by a margin of roughly 11%.

   "It's the first time in the history of the United States that the
   peaceful transfer of power has been slowed by an act of violence,"
   Democratic House Speaker Brian Egolf said. "It is a shameful moment,
   and I hope that the Congress can recover soon."

   Violent protests in Washington came as Congress tried to affirm Biden's
   Electoral College victory. News that a mob had breached the U.S.
   Capitol set off cheers at pro-Trump protests in Minnesota and Arizona,
   where armed protesters marched at the Capitol in Phoenix and several
   men displayed a guillotine.

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