Tempers flare as Trump, Biden supporters clash

Washington, December 13

Thousands of supporters of Donald Trump returned to Washington for weekend rallies to back his desperate efforts to subvert the election that he lost to Joe Biden.

Sporadic fights broke out between pro-Trump and pro-Biden demonstrators. WRC-TV reported that four people were taken to a hospital with stab wounds, and the Metropolitan Police Department told the station that 23 people were arrested.

The gatherings of mostly unmasked Trump loyalists were intended as a show of force just two days before the Electoral College meets to formally elect Biden as the 46th president. Trump, whose term will end on January 20, refuses to concede, while clinging to baseless claims of fraud that have been rejected by state courts and the Supreme Court.

The police took more steps to keep the two sides apart, closing a wide swath of downtown to traffic and sealing off Black Lives Matter Plaza. The rallies drew the Proud Boys, a group known to incite violence. — Agencies