After preparation for potentially large-scale protests, only about 10 supporters of President Donald Trump waved signs to motorists outside Florida’s Capitol on Wednesday as President Joe Biden was sworn into office in Washington, D.C.
With law-enforcement officers visible atop the Florida Capitol and the nearby Leon County Courthouse, the handful of Trump backers maintained their unsubstantiated belief about election fraud in the 2020 election as motorists occasionally honked in agreement or shouted disparaging remarks.
“We just feel there were a lot of improprieties during the election. We just don’t feel like our votes were heard,” said Earl Austin, who drove from Jacksonville with his wife, Suzanne, to hold signs outside the Capitol. “We just feel like, right now, we know it’s over probably, but it’s so these things do not occur ever again.”
Nearby a woman, clad in a red “MAGA” cap and a face mask featuring the word “Trump,” declined to discuss what drew her to the state Capitol, while she held a couple of signs, one stating: “Thank You President Trump! The World needed you.”
Members of the media dominated the scene along Monroe Street. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis activated the Florida National Guard to assist state and local law enforcement following an FBI warning of potential violent protests in state capitals in the wake of the Jan. 6 attempted pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
