Carrying signs and reciting chants denouncing the president-elect as racist, and misogynistic, thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across the U.S. Wednesday to protest Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. There were few reports of violence or arrests.
A large crowd packed New York City’s Fifth Avenue, directly in front of the Trump Tower where the president-elect lives, waving signs reading “Love Trumps Hate.”
Another group gathered across from Trump’s soon-to-be-home, the White House in Washington. Just down Pennsylvania Avenue, at the newly-opened Trump Hotel, protesters chanted “Say it loud, say it clear: Refugees are welcome here.”
Elsewhere on the United States’ East Coast, demonstrations were held in Miami, Philadelphia and Boston, where protesters carried signs calling for Trump’s impeachment and an end to the Electoral College, the constitutionally-established process that resulted in Trump winning the presidency despite his apparent narrow loss in the overall popular vote.
On the opposite side of the country, protesters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle marched and blocked traffic to express their anger over Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton.
In the Midwest, protests were held in Chicago, Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri.
Chicago resident Michael Burke told the Associated Press he believes Trump will “divide the country and stir up hatred.”
Even Texas, a solidly Republican state, saw demonstrations in its larger cities, including Dallas and the state capital, Austin.
In Oakland, California, demonstrators burned trash in the streets and some store windows were smashed.
No one from the Trump staff has commented on the protests.
Calls for unity
In his victory speech Tuesday, Trump promised to be a president for all Americans, saying “It is time for us to come together as one united people.”
On Wednesday, Clinton told supporters at a gathering in New York that while the election results will be “painful for a long time,” the nation must give Trump a chance to prove himself.
“We owe [Trump] an open mind and a chance to lead,” she said.
President Obama also called on the nation to put aside partisanship.
“We are not Democrats first. We are not Republicans first. We are Americans first,” Obama said.
Source: VOA
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