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Jamie Raskin, Democratic representative of Maryland, is now addressing the crowd in Washington DC.
He said:
“We’ve got the right to protest for what is right without being arrested, deported or fired. We got the right to read the books we want, including 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale… We’ve even got the right to call the president deranged from crashing our economy, destroying $6 trillion of wealth and turning our 401Ks into 201Ks and the press has the right to call the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico.”
Criticizing the January 6 rioters, Raskin said:
“These were monsters who turned the flag of America into a weapon of war against our police. And now, Donald Trump says he wants to set up a fund to compensate them. Mr. Trump, if there’s got to be a fund to compensate people for January 6, we’re going to compensate the police officers and their families. We’re going to back the men and women of the blue, not the planners of the coup.”
William Barber II, a professor in the practice of public theology and public policy at Yale Divinity School, just addressed the crowd in Washington DC.
Barber said:
“We are not going to bow to the power-drunk neo-fascist extremists. We only bow to God, and so we must stand tall when they attack everyday people… We must stand tall... So stand up to the technocrats. It’s time for our pulpits to stand tall. It’s time for statesmen…to stand tall. It’s time for the people to stand tall, we must mobilize our righteous bodies and our voices and our hearts by the millions.”
Robert Tait
Demonstrators from as far afield as New Hampshire and Pennsylvania have gathered on Washington’s national monument, in the shadow of the George Washington memorial monument, in advance of the anti-Donald Trump Hands Off rally.
In overcast conditions, protesters displayed a vast array of placards and, in some cases, Ukrainian flags, expressing opposition to administration policies. Some protesters said they hoped the event - the first mass demonstration in Washington DC since Trump took office - would act as an example to inspire others to register opposition. “
The aim is get people to rise up,” said Diane Kolifrath, 63, who had travelled from New Hampshire with 100 fellow members of New Hampshire Forward, a civic society organisation.
“Many people are scared to protest against Trump because he has reacted aggressively and violently to those who have stood up. The goal of this protest is to let the rest of Americans who aren’t participating see that we are standing up and hopefully when they see our strength, that will give them the courage to also stand up,” Kolifrath said.
Here are some images coming through the newswires of the Hands Off protests in Washington DC:
Several congressional members are expected to make apperances and deliver speeches at the Hands Off protest in Washington DC today.
They include Democrats Jamie Raskin and Glenn Ivey of Maryland, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Katherine Clark of Massachussetts and Don Beyer of Virginia, as well as Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Good morning,
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of Washington DC and other major cities across the US in a show of defiance against Donald Trump’s “authoritarian overreach and billionaire-backed agenda”.
The “Hands Off” protests – of which more than 1,000 events are planned across the country – are expected to be the largest single day of action since Trump was sworn into office for a second term.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, MoveOn, one of the organizations planning the protests, said:
This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history. Trump, Musk and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy and our basic rights – enabled by Congress every step of the way.
It went on to add:
They want to strip America for parts – shuttering social security offices, firing essential workers, eliminating consumer protections and gutting Medicaid – all to bankroll their billionaire tax scam. They’re handing over our tax dollars, our public services and our democracy to the ultra-rich.
If we don’t fight now, there won’t be anything left to save.
Stay tuned as we bring you live updates throughout the day of the protests from across the country.
