(Reuters) – Supporters of President Donald Trump staged rallies on Wednesday outside statehouses in several cities, including Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and Salt Lake City that coincided with the storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, local news media said.
Protesters swarmed into the Kansas statehouse in Topeka and gathered inside the first floor of the Capitol rotunda, though the rally remained orderly, television station KSNT reported.
There were no immediate reports of violence, despite the flurry of demonstrations by pro-Trump demonstrators echoing his baseless claims that he was robbed of a re-election victory due to voter fraud.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said on Twitter that he had instructed city agencies to close municipal offices early in Colorado’s state capital “out of an abundance of caution” after about 700 demonstrators gathered at the statehouse downtown.
“My hope is that this situation will be resolved quickly. Pray for our nation,” he tweeted.
A major courthouse complex and two other government buildings in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, were also ordered closed due to protests near the statehouse.
Among those whose daily routines were altered were aides to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, the Republican election official pressured by Trump in a weekend telephone call to “find” enough additional votes for the president to overturn the November victory of President-elect Joe Biden, due to take office in two weeks.
Raffensperger’s spokesman, Walter Jones, said staff left their offices after lunch out of an abundance of caution because of protests. He said Raffensperger was not in the office at the time.
In Salt Lake City, Dana Jones, director of the state Capitol Preservation Board, said she had asked building staff to work from home on Wednesday afternoon on the advice of the Utah Highway Patrol and public safety commissioner, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The precaution was taken, the newspaper said, in response to a crowd of about 250 pro-Trump demonstrators who posted signs on the Capitol building that read: “Stop the steal!” and “Trump won!”
A Utah state police spokesman said security had been beefed up at the Capitol, though he said protesters there were “very peaceful,” the Tribune reported. It said one of its photographers was pepper-sprayed by individuals upset that he was documenting their protest.
Several hundred Trump supporters also staged a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix, cheering and jeering while exhibiting a guillotine.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Rich McKay, David Schwartz, Daniel Trotta and Steve Gorman; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Howard Goller)
