Protesters march along Fifth Avenue outside Trump Tower
Aday after Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, campaign divisions appeared to widen as many thousands of demonstrators — some with signs with messages declaring “NOT MY PRESIDENT” — flooded streets across the country to protest his surprise triumph.
From New England to heartland cities like Kansas City and along the West Coast, demonstrators bore flags and effigies of the president-elect, disrupting traffic and declaring that they refused to accept Trump’s victory.
Flames lit up the night sky in California cities yesterday [Macau time] as thousands of protesters burned a giant papier-mache Trump head in Los Angeles and started fires in Oakland intersections.
Los Angeles demonstrators also beat a Trump piñata and sprayed the Los Angeles Times building and news vans with anti-Trump profanity. One protester outside LA City Hall read a sign that simply said “this is very bad.”
Late in the evening several hundred people blocked one of the city’s busiest freeways, U.S. 101 between downtown and Hollywood.
City News Service reported that 13 people were arrested as officers in full riot gear walked the protesters off the freeway.
By 1:30 a.m., the freeway was clear of demonstrators but lanes remained closed for cleanup.
In Oakland, several thousand people gathered in Frank Ogawa Palaza, police said, clogging intersections and freeway on-ramps.
In Chicago, where thousands had recently poured into the streets to celebrate the Chicago Cubs’ first World Series victory in over a century, several thousand people marched through the Loop. They gathered outside Trump Tower, chanting “Not my president!”
Chicago resident Michael Burke said he believes the president-elect will “divide the country and stir up hatred.” He added there was a constitutional duty not to accept that outcome.
Police said that an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 people participated in the Chicago protests. Police reported five arrests, including two for obstructing traffic, but said there were no major incidents.
A similar protest in Manhattan drew about 1,000 people. Outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in midtown, police installed barricades to keep the demonstrators at bay.
Hundreds of protesters gathered near Philadelphia’s City Hall despite chilly, wet weather. Participants — who included both supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the primary — expressed anger at both Republicans and Democrats over the election’s outcome.
In Boston, thousands of anti-Trump protesters streamed through downtown, chanting “Trump’s a racist” and carrying signs that said “Impeach Trump” and “Abolish Electoral College.” Clinton appears to be on pace to win the popular vote, despite losing the electoral count that decides the presidential race.
The protesters gathered on Boston Common before marching toward the Massachusetts Statehouse, with beefed-up security including extra police officers.
Hundreds also gathered in Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Maine.
A protest that began at the Minnesota State Capitol with about 100 people swelled at is moved into downtown St. Paul, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Protesters blocked downtown streets and traveled west on University Avenue where they shouted expletives about Trump in English and Spanish.
There were other Midwest protest marches in Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Marchers protesting Trump’s election chanted and carried signs in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Media outlets broadcast video Wednesday night showing a peaceful crowd in front of the new downtown hotel. Many chanted “No racist USA, no Trump, no KKK.”
Another group stood outside the White House. They held candles, listened to speeches and sang songs.
In Richmond, Virginia, 10 people were arrested after protesters sat in travel lanes of the Downtown Expressway and refused to leave. Earlier, hundreds had gathered near Monroe Park and blocked the streets near Virginia Commonwealth University with some marchers chanting “No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA.”
Dallas activists gathered by the dozens outside the city’s sports arena, the American Airlines Center.
In Oregon, dozens of people blocked traffic in downtown Portland, burned American flags and forced a delay for trains on two light-rail lines.
Hundreds massed in downtown Seattle streets.
Many held anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter signs and chanted slogans, including “Misogyny has to go,” and “The people united, will never be defeated.”
Five people were shot and injured in an area near the protest, but police said the shootings and the demonstration were unrelated. Andrew Dalton, Los Angeles, AP
Giuliani: protesters ‘a bunch of crybabies’
A top adviser to Donald Trump is dismissing post-election protesters as “a bunch of crybabies.”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was asked yesterday about protests in several cities following Trump’s victory.
Giuliani said on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” that most of the protesters are college-age students and seem to be “1 percent of 1 percent of 1 percent.”
Giuliani said he would advise the president-elect to tell them to calm down and after a year, “you’ll be living in a better country. If not, go cry then.”
Giuliani is widely expected to get a major position in the Trump administration.
Late-night hosts mark Trump’s election with jokes, therapy
Late-night hosts pivoted from candidate Donald Trump to President-elect Trump, combining punchlines and audience group counseling after the billionaire’s defeat of Hillary Clinton.
“For years I’ve come out every night and asked how you’re doing, but I’ve never meant it. Tonight I actually mean it. Does anyone need a hug?” Conan O’Brien said in his monologue on TBS. Despite divisions among voters, he said, “the optimist in me chooses, today, to be happy that we have fair and free elections at all. It’s an amazing thing. “
And then there were the jokes. “The first thing I did this morning was call my old high school bully and congratulate him,” O’Brien said.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel took viewers through the stages of grief, including denial (“No, the host of the ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ is not our president”) and bargaining (“Maybe he’ll only build the wall waist-high, to keep short people out”) and, finally, acceptance.
“No matter how you feel about it, Donald Trump is the president of the United States. Of America. So thank God we legalized marijuana yesterday,” Kimmel said, referring to pot-related measures passed by voters in several states.
Like O’Brien, Stephen Colbert began his monologue by asking CBS’ “The Late Show” studio audience how they were doing, drawing cheers and applause.
“I’m glad. That’s better than I thought,” he said, suggesting the country was facing “four very interesting years.”
“This is what it feels like when America’s made great again. I was wondering, and I was really hoping it would feel better because this sucks,” he said, drawing out the last word. Noting anti-Trump protests in New York and other cities nationwide, Colbert advised viewers, “Don’t ever be cowed by what happens in the next four years.”
For parents struggling to explain Trump’s victory to their children, he suggested lying: “Tell them anything. Tell them the president is Elsa from ‘Frozen.’”
NBC’s “Tonight” host Jimmy Fallon focused on serving up jokes rather than angst.
“Republicans hope he’ll keep his promise to build the wall, and Democrats hope he’ll keep his promise not to accept the election results,” he said. “And after the results came in, Donald Trump gave a big victory speech. Yep, he said he couldn’t have done it without the love of his life, his rock, his better half FBI Director James Comey.”
CBS’ “Late Late Show” host James Corden, recalling the excitement of moving from England to America with his wife and son two years ago, said after the “nastiest” of campaigns it was critical to remember the nation’s values.
“This country isn’t about one election result. This country is about the people who live here. It’s you. It’s how you treat one another, it’s the tone you set that will define who we are” and reaffirm that America is great, he said.
Seth Meyers, who had sharply criticized Trump’s campaign on his “Late Night” show on NBC, struck a philosophical tone in hashing over Tuesday’s election.
“I felt a lot of emotions last night and into today: some sadness, some anger, some fear. But I’m also aware that those are the same emotions a lot of Trump supporters felt, emotions that led them to make their choice. And it would be wrong for me to think my emotions are somehow more authentic than their emotions.
“We’re always better as a society when we have empathy for one another, so I would just say to those Trump voters, congratulations. I sincerely hope he addresses your concerns,” Meyers said, adding that he also hopes for compassion for all Americans from the Trump administration.
His show will be on watch, he said, to see if Trump fulfills the campaign promises he made. AP
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