Members of the Proud Boys will descend onto Washington, D.C. to attend pro-Donald Trump protests on January 6 the day Congress counts Electoral College votes and affirms the incumbent’s loss to Joe Biden.
The far-right, male-only group members will be dressed in disguise in order to blend in with other people attending the protests, the leader of the controversial group said.
“We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams,” Enrique Tarrio said on social media.
“And who knows….we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion,” Tarrio posted on the social media service Parler. “The night calls for a BLACK tie event.”
The Proud Boys members, who often show up to counter protests against Trump and racial injustice, made headlines last summer, clashing with Antifa and Black Lives Matter demonstrators in the aftermath of Black George Floyd's death while in police custody in Minneapolis.
Hundreds of the group members participated in pro-Trump protests held early in last month in D.C., during which more than 30 were arrested, several people were stabbed, and a “Black Lives Matter” sign, which was stolen from a historic Black church in D.C. was set on fire and destroyed.
Meanwhile Trump said on Twitter Friday that "the BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th."
The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2021
Trump, who has refused to concede the November 3 election to Biden, has been pushing congressional Republicans to go along with a long-shot effort to vote against the counting of the electoral votes.
The Republican president has continued to allege voter fraud related to mail-in voting, but the Supreme Court has refused two cases from the Trump campaign, and more than 50 lawsuits have been dismissed in lower courts across the nation.
Also on Saturday, US Senator Ted Cruz said he will spearhead a drive by nearly a dozen Republican senators to challenge Biden’s victory on the same day.
In a statement, Cruz, the US senator from Texas, and the other 10 senators said they intend to vote to reject electors from swing states that have been at the center of Trump’s assertions of election fraud.