Millions of people are expected to protest President Donald Trump’s reach for more executive power at “No Kings” rallies across the country this Saturday, and organizers and supporters are worried about the presence of federal authorities in some of those cities.
Republican leaders have linked — without evidence — the rallies, which are expected across 2,500 towns and cities, to terrorism and political violence. But some of the protests’ organizers and their supporters say they’re more concerned about what the federal response to these gatherings might look like than they are about any demonstrators’ potential illegal conduct.
“We have a very volatile situation in which these federal forces are not wanted in these cities, and they’re behaving very aggressively towards the people there — being very provocative, attacking or arresting people who are filming them or protesting them,” said Chip Gibbons, policy director for Defending Rights & Dissent, one of the protests’ supporting organizations.