Pro-Trump protesters in Wichita make their case, while heckled by passing motorists
Shortly before violence erupted in Washington Wednesday, a small group of President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered outside the Sedgwick County Courthouse in downtown Wichita to express their disagreement with the November election that went against Trump.
About 30 gathered at the northwest corner of Main and Central, waving pro-Trump flags and signs with slogans like “Trump didn’t steal my vote,” expressing their belief that president-elect Joe Biden did not win the election legitimately.
“We believe our freedoms are being taken away, that’s why we’re here today,” said a bullhorn-wielding Betty Scarbrough, a leader of the Unmask the Truth group that organized the protest.
The Unmask group formed online several months ago to protest mask mandates and other COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, but has morphed over time into a group also promoting conspiracy theories about the election.
During much of the protest, audio of a Trump speech demanding changes to the election process was playing on a boom box in the background.
Reactions to the protest were mixed. A few passing motorists honked in support, but more heckled and cursed the demonstrators.
“You lost, get over it!” shouted one woman as she drove by. A man shouted “You need a shrink.”
Some of the protesters responded with shouts of “Stop the steal” and “Socialism sucks!”
In her remarks to the group, Scarbrough addressed the heckling, saying that the demonstrators were patriots. “I guess that’s your constitutional right, if you want to ridicule patriots,” she said.
In Topeka, about 200 Trump supporters rallied Wednesday at the Kansas Statehouse to show their support for overturning Biden’s victory.
They chanted “stop the steal,” “four more years” and “no more masks,” a reference to many Trump supporters’ opposition to coronavirus restrictions such as requiring people to wear masks in public.
After the rally, dozens of Trump’s supporters entered the Statehouse peacefully, one by one or in small groups and milled around, glanced at historical exhibits and sat on benches.
Trump carried Kansas easily in November to capture its six electoral votes.
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 3:28 PM.
