Several hundred supporters of President Donald Trump gathered in front of the Old Capitol Saturday. They sang, prayed, and held signs reading “Stop The Steal.”
“If we lost fair and square, have at it. I’ve got no problem with that,” says Tallahassee resident Margaretrose Cox. “But don’t steal something from the American people, our freedoms. This election is about way more than just a person or a party. It’s about our way of life; freedom as we know it is at stake in this election.”
“We’re here to support our president because Trump fights for us, so we’re fighting for him in a nice, peaceful way. But we want to stop the steal,” Cox says. “It’s not over. The media does not determine who the president is.”
If former Vice President Joe Biden is officially declared the winner, Cox says she’ll go on with life as best she can. “I certainly don’t like the idea of some sort of socialistic nanny state coming in and telling me how to live my life,” says Cox, who describes the gathering at Monroe Street and Apalachee Parkway as a grassroots effort.
Trump easily won Florida, earning the state’s coveted 29 electoral votes. But the tight vote in a handful of states saw Biden overtake Trump after several days of counting, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election for Trump supporters.
“I’ve seen the media lie repeatedly to the American people,” says Stuart Sawyer from Orlando, one of the demonstrators holding a megaphone. “If we allow our election system to be compromised by people who want to count votes in secret – literally behind closed doors where they block windows and suddenly hundreds of thousands of votes magically appear at 4am by the vote fairy - every American should be concerned about this.”
“It’s not just about Donald Trump. It’s for the future of America,” says Sawyer, who’s also upset by social media censorship. Twitter and Facebook have removed dozens of posts by the president or labeled them as misleading in recent days. “If this had happened to Joe Biden, I would be out here as well," Sawyer says.
While Biden appears to have more than the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency, absentee ballots are still being counted. The election results aren't official until they've been certified by each state.
