From San Francisco to St. Louis, Denver to Detroit, the fifth day of protests against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continue to sweep across the nation.
In Manhattan, protesters carried placards in both English and Spanish, chanting maxims such as « Hate won’t make us great! » and « We are here to stay! » as they swarmed the president-elect’s Midtown penthouse home. Secret Service agents and NYPD officers blocked off demonstrators from getting too close.
On the other side of the country, around 8,000 people marched in Los Angeles to condemn Trump’s hate speech.
A couple hundred people gathered on the steps of the Washington state capitol., chanting « not my president! » and « no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA! »
In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil rights songs, marching through campus, crossing into a Nashville street, and temporarily blocked traffic.
In Portland, police arrested 71 protesters on Saturday and Sunday morning after several days of demonstrations.
“The president of the United States, Secretary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, perhaps, others can come forward and ask for calm and ask for a peaceful transition and ask their supporters, which are masquerading as protesters now — many of them professional and paid by the way, I’m sure — ask them to give this man a chance so that this country can flourish,” Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Sunday.
While neither Clinton or Obama have specifically called for an end to protests, both have issued complacent decrees about the incoming president.
Obama told Trump at the White House on Thursday that he was going to help Trump succeed, « because if you succeed, then the country succeeds. »
Clinton told supporters at a New York hotel on Wednesday: « Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. »
Sanders, however, has openly supported protesters.
“We have a First Amendment. People are angry. People are upset. And they want to express their point of view that they are very frightened, in very, very strong disagreement with Mr. Trump, who has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign,” he told USA Today.
“I think that people are saying, ‘Mr. Trump, we have come too far in this country fighting discrimination and bigotry. We’re not going back. And if you’re going to continue that effort, you’re going to have to take us on.’”