WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump addressed thousands of supporters, including members of far-right groups, at a rally in Washington protesting Wednesday\u2019s meeting of Congress to confirm Joe Biden\u2019s victory in November\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has spent much of his time since then in a failed effort to reverse his defeat, falsely said he won the election as he spoke on an outdoor stage framing the White House, which Biden is due to take over in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Crowds gathered at the \u201cSave America March\u201d wore Trump-approved red baseball caps and cheered as Trump repeated the groundless conspiracy theories that have consumed his final days in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t concede when there\u2019s theft involved,\u201d Trump said. \u201cOur country has had enough and we will not take it any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weeks have passed since the states completed certifying that Biden, a Democrat, won the election by 306 Electoral College votes to Trump\u2019s 232, and Trump\u2019s extraordinary challenges to Biden\u2019s victory have floundered in courts across the country.<\/p>\n
Congress was due to confirm Biden\u2019s victory on Wednesday. Many of Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans have promised a stonewalling effort that could stretch proceedings past midnight but was almost certain to fail.<\/p>\n
Members of militia groups and far-right groups, some decked in body armor, mingled with the crowds.<\/p> Washington police earlier banned from the city Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Trump-supporting far-right group the Proud Boys, after he was arrested on Monday for destruction of property and possession of a firearm magazine.<\/p>\n Other members of the men\u2019s group, which espouses white nationalism, gathered at the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n Crowd control largely fell to the Metropolitan Police Department, which mobilized all 3,750 officers, the Capitol Police, the Park Police, the U.S. Secret Service, and more than 300 members of the city\u2019s National Guard, according to Washington police chief Robert Contee and other officials.<\/p>\n Police have told protesters not to bring their guns to Washington, which has some of the country\u2019s strictest gun laws and bans the open carrying of firearms.<\/p>\n On Tuesday evening, Trump supporters trying to reach Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House were stopped by police in riot gear who used pepper spray and batons to drive them back.<\/p>\n (This story refiles to fix typo in last paragraph)<\/p>\n