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White House fenced up, Trump warns of violence as America votes
Massachusetts has kept 1,000 National Guards personnel on alert for deployment against any violence and Oregon has declared a state of emergency in Portland, which saw a prolonged bout of unrest months ago.
President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden wrapped up their campaigns on Monday as a ring of unscalable fence went up around the White House in Washington DC in anticipation of unrest on election night in a grim reminder of a country on edge.
The fence was being erected late Monday evening and will have been completed by the morning when Americans start the last day of polling. Many businesses and stores in downtown Washington DC have already boarded up their windows and doors fearing a return of the looting and vandalism they saw last summer during anti-racism protests.
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Massachusetts has kept 1,000 National Guards personnel on alert for deployment against any violence and Oregon has declared a state of emergency in Portland, which saw a prolonged bout of unrest months ago.
Trump flagged the possibility of violence himself in a tweet posted late during his five-rally blitz across four states in which, among other things, he complained about a Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania. “It will also induce violence in the streets,” he wrote. “Something must be done!”
The International Crisis Group, an independent group that works towards preventing wars and seeks to sound the alarm to prevent deadly conflicts, has warned that “the ingredients for unrest are present. The electorate is polarised, both sides frame the stakes as existential, violent actors could disrupt the process and protracted contestation is possible”.
It added that Trump’s “often incendiary rhetoric suggests he will more likely stoke than calm tensions.”
The president’s warning of violence was part of a dark and angry closing argument he conveyed on Monday, in which he aired old grievances about the Russia probe and new ones.
“You look at what’s going on in Philadelphia - we’re watching you, governor,” he said at a rally, adding, “Make sure your governor doesn’t cheat, because they are known for very bad things here. But we have a lot of eyes watching, a lot of very powerful eyes here.”
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That was at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden’s hometown.
Biden, the Democratic nominee and former vice-president, wrapped up his campaign with a unifying message and a commitment to bring under control the Covid-19 epidemic and choose “unity over division, hope over fear, science over fiction and … truth over lies”.
He chose Pittsburgh for his wrap-up speech, coming back to where he launched his bid for the presidency in April of 2019.
One of them is likely to emerge winner late Tuesday — most certainly in the days to come — after the end of the most unique of US elections held under the shadow of a deadly pandemic that has completely changed electioneering and polling, with early voting in person or by mail being a large part of it.
Close to 98 million Americans have already voted in a sign that most experts said foretold record turnout. “We’re looking at historic turnout in 2020, from 138 million roughly ballot cast in 2016 to possibly 150, or more in 2020,” said Meena Bose, professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. “Absentee ballots (mail-in votes) are expected to triple from what they were in 2016, from less than a quarter to possibly close to three quarters.
“And for the first time in American history, more votes are likely to be cast before the election than on election day whether that be absentee ballot, or by early (in-person) voting.”
