Dozens of pro-Trump protesters chant 'Fox News sucks' outside major election HQ in Arizona, with several reportedly trying to get inside as votes are being counted

U.S. President Donald Trump supporters gather to protest the election results at the Maricopa County Elections Department office on November 4, 2020 in Phoenix, Arizona. The rally was organized after yesterday's vote narrowly turned for Democrats in the presidential and senate races.

Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

• A growing crowd of around 200 people packed the parking lot outside of the Maricopa County Election Center in Arizona.
• The pro-Trump protesters chanted "Fox News sucks" in opposition to the network's call for Arizona's 11 electoral votes to go to Democratic nominee Joe Biden Tuesday night.
• Some in the crowd tried to get inside the building to see the vote count, Gadi Schwartz of MSNBC reported late Wednesday.
• The protest elicited comparisons to the Brooks Brothers Riot in Miami-Dade County back in the 2000 election.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Just outside of the building where thousands of votes are being counted in Arizona's most populous county, a crowd of around 200 people gathered late Thursday night as a tense situation unfolded.

The pro-Trump group chanted "Fox News sucks" to register their opposition to the network's early call for Arizona and its 11 electoral votes to go for Democratic nominee Joe Biden Tuesday night, well before other media outlets.

—Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 5, 2020

 

Some of those gathered outside of the Maricopa County Election Center in Phoenix demanded entry to the facility where the votes were being counted, according to MSNBC's Gadi Schwartz. 

Schwartz reported the protesters asking law enforcement to let them inside were holding up smartphones and claiming they were journalists.

The protest elicited comparisons to the Brooks Brothers Riot in Miami-Dade County in the 2000 election, when pro-George W. Bush protesters were able to successfully shut down a recount that may have given the Florida lead to then-Vice President Al Gore — though the Maricopa crowd also chanted "count the vote."

—The Recount (@therecount) November 5, 2020

Biden has been leading President Trump in Arizona since returns began coming in, with a few hundred thousand ballots left to count. 

Many of those are early and mail-in votes from Maricopa County, where Biden has performed well and tends to outperform Trump, even more so among those who voted by mail.

Trump still has a chance of being able to to win Arizona, but surmounting Biden's lead given the makeup of the ballots left to be counted would be steep, and he would need to overperform the rate at which he's been getting votes thus far in the count.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3p8JRcu