Fox News host Brian Kilmeade raised concerns about President Donald Trump‘s calls for supporters to converge on Washington, D.C., on January 6 when Congress will formally count the electoral votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden‘s win.
Trump has told his supporters via Twitter to head to the nation’s capital to join rallies in support of his effort to overturn Biden’s victory. The president continues to push unfounded claims that Biden won through widespread voter fraud, and a growing number of Republican lawmakers are planning a futile attempt to object on January 6 to the electoral votes of key battleground states that went for Biden.
During the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends on Monday, a program that is regularly supportive of Trump, hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy pointed out that the president and his lawyers have not provided evidence to back the allegations of widespread voter fraud. Kilmeade then expressed his worries about the rallies and protests planned in Washington this week.
“I just worry about—you have that along with the protests the president’s calling for on Tuesday and Wednesday. I mean, this is the type of anarchy that doesn’t work for anybody, Republicans or Democrats, in the big picture,” Kilmeade warned. He noted that Trump’s legal team should “produce” the evidence of voter fraud if there is any.
“So far, there’s just no proof of it, and just because you voted for the president doesn’t mean there’s actual evidence that this exists,” he said.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade raises concerns on Monday about President Donald Trump’s call for protests on January 6, the day when states’ electoral votes are counted. Screenshot/Fox News
Doocy then pointed out that some of Trump’s supporters have made wild claims in interviews with the media or during public events, but have not said the same thing when they go to court. “You cannot present information into a court if you do not have the evidence,” he said. “And so far we haven’t seen the evidence.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The March for Trump website, which is helping to organize the Washington events this week, calls on demonstrators to “demand transparency and protect the election integrity.” Trump has said via Twitter that the protests will be “very big” and “wild.” Meanwhile, local police have begun posting signs reminding residents and attendees that guns are not allowed near demonstrations in the city. Some protest organizers have encouraged Trump supporters to bring guns.
“Members of the public and anyone attending the events are reminded that District law prohibits anyone from carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of any First Amendment activity,” the capitol’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said in a statement. “Under federal law, it is illegal to possess firearms on the U.S. Capitol grounds and on National Park Service areas, such as Freedom Plaza, the Ellipse, and the National Mall.”
The GOP-led efforts to object to election results from several states won by Biden are expected to fail. For an objection to succeed, the House of Representatives and the Senate would both need to approve it. That is not expected to happen in either chamber, as the Democrats control the House and there appear to be enough Republicans opposed to the objections to block any from succeeding in the Senate.
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
A number of Republican lawmakers have strongly criticized their colleagues’ efforts to challenge the election results, warning that they are harmful to the nation’s democratic system.
“The president and his allies are playing with fire. They have been asking – first the courts, then state legislatures, now the Congress – to overturn the results of a presidential election,” Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, wrote in a rebuke posted to Facebook last Wednesday.
“If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn’t and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote,” Sasse added.
Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, has repeatedly suggested that GOP colleagues backing the objections are doing so to gain social media followers and fundraise.
“Members of Congress are planning to try to overthrow this election by using the debunked conspiracy theories. Let’s be clear—they won’t succeed and they all know it,” Kinzinger said last Thursday in a video posted to social media.
