begin quote from:
A
new wave of protests erupted outside Trump Tower Tuesday after
President Donald Trump defended his response to Saturday’s
racially-charged protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. …
A new wave of protests erupted outside Trump Tower Tuesday after
President Donald Trump defended his response to Saturday’s
racially-charged protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Aug. 15)
AP
NEW
YORK — Hundreds of anti-Trump protesters and a small number
of demonstrators backing the president faced off Tuesday evening across
Fifth Avenue, three blocks south of Trump Tower, as police stood in a
line in the street.
The anti-Trump
demonstrators, backed by the sounds of clapping and drumsticks hitting
barricades, shouted, "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA." The pro-Trump
group paced, carrying signs reading, "Thank God for Trump" and "Deport
illegal aliens."
The New York City Police Department relegated demonstrators to pens between East 54th Street and East 53rd Street.
The scene was energetic but peaceful. Occasionally, a crew of police officers rode through on bicycles.
Demonstrators
on both sides of the issue goaded each other across Fifth Avenue and
across East 54th Street, though the anti-Trump crowd outnumbered the
pro-Trump demonstrators by about 20 to one.
Anti-Trump
supporters shouted, "When I say Im you say Peach, impeach, impeach,"
and, "When I say Re you say Sist, resist, resist" from their barricaded
area on the east side of Fifth Avenue. Demonstrators used a machine to
project phrases onto the exterior of a building such as "Dump Trump" and
"End White Supremacy."
Isabella Peralta said she was at the demonstration because, as a person of color, she no longer feels safe in her own country.
"I
am here because our president refuses to denounce Nazis and the KKK,"
said Peralta, 23, of Manhattan. "I am living in fear in the United
States more than ever before," she said.
Biotech
company CEO Chuck Wilson said he decided to stop by the demonstration
while in town for a conference because he feels disdain for the
administration.
"I think Donald Trump is intrinsically evil and destroying this country," said Wilson of Cambridge, Mass.
"I wanted to be part of the statement against him," said Wilson, whose company, Unum Therapeutics, is working to cure cancer.
Earlier,
a handful of pro-Trump supporters settled in a penned-in area on the
northeast side of East 54th Street and Fifth Avenue said they showed up
to set the record straight about what they represent.
"It's
not about putting a black man in office, it's about a government that
needs to be fixed," said Trump supporter Jose Bermudez, 56, a native
Cuban who lives in Manhattan.
Bermudez
wore a red baseball cap that read, "In Trump we trust." He stressed he
is in the United States legally and that he supports the president's
immigration policies.
"We cannot allow all these people in because they have to fix their own countries first," Bermudez said.
Sixteen-year-old
Luke Kabbash of Manhattan said he came out of frustration that Trump
supporters were being associated with hate groups.
"That's just not what we believe," Kabbash said. "It's an unfair label."
While
a majority of the demonstrators voiced views against the president, a
handful of supporters chanted, "Blue lives matter" and sported the Trump
campaign's "Make America Great Again" ball caps. A few carried
Trump/Pence signs with one supporter attaching a "re-elect Trump 2020"
pin as a sign of further support for the beleaguered commander-in-chief.
According
to KOIN-TV, theatergoers who had attended Michael Moore's new Broadway
play, "The Terms of My Surrender," were loading onto buses heading to
the demonstration site.
On
Facebook, Moore urged people to join him at Trump Tower after Tuesday
night’s performance of his one-man show to “nonviolently express our
rage.”
After the play, Moore can be seen on a
Facebook Live video leading a group of people to the tower, where the
president is staying for the first time since his inauguration. He was
joined by actor Mark Ruffalo. They led the group in chants including,
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
But
by 10 p.m. ET, the crowd dwindled to a match across Fifth Avenue
between about 300 anti-Trump supporters and about three pro-Trump
demonstrators.
Police on horseback sat waiting at intersections for turbulence that seemed unlikely to happen.
During a news conference Tuesday at the skyscraper that contains his New York City home and office, President Trump defended the comment he made Saturday when he said "many sides" were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, Va., that left one woman dead.
Trump's insistence that both sides were at fault in the clash between white supremacists and protesters caused a major uproar on social media.
On Sunday and Monday, protesters rallied in cities across the U.S. Monday in Durham, N.C., a Confederate statue was toppled by demonstrators.
On Tuesday night, protesters also marched in solidarity with Charlottesville in Birmingham, Ala.
Contributing: Eli Blumenthal and William Cummings, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press.
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