Joseph Todd of Prairieville flew with his father and nephew to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s “Save America March,” but not because he believes the president’s assertions of voter fraud. In his view, the president hasn’t proven the case, yet Todd thinks the election that Trump lost to Joe Biden highlighted areas where voting security could improve.
That's the message he said he wanted to convey Wednesday in Washington. But he now frets it was drowned out forever because a mob of pro-Trump supporters invaded the Capitol.
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“When I heard they infiltrated, I almost started crying,” said Todd, who after rally at The Elllipse moved toward the Capitol yet left when it became clear some marchers were breaking off to storm the building. “It destroys everything we are trying to promote. This cannot be the label on the masses.”
Todd was among a half-dozen Louisianans who spoke with The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate on Thursday after going to Washington to support Trump ahead of the congressional vote to affirm the Nov. 3 election result.
Unlike Todd, some of those who attended the rally said they think Trump was indeed robbed of a second term, espousing unproven hypotheses that have nonetheless been lent widespread credence on right-leaning news outlets and social media platforms. But like Todd, they all drew a distinction between themselves and the rioters who breached the Capitol and delayed for hours the vote that sealed Trump’s defeat.
From left to right, David Durio, Joseph Todd and Jacob Todd in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, for a rally in support of Donald Trump. (Photo provided by Joseph Todd)
“The best-case scenario was for that event to be peaceful,” said rally attendee Michael Farris, a Bossier City security consultant who describes himself as a Trump supporter and a registered independent. “I knew if it became violent, we would alienate people who were on the fence or uninformed. What happened at the Capitol … added another rock to the rock pile of polarization.”
Like Todd and Farris, St. Tammany Parish residents Marcus Clavier, William Wolcott and Dave Schwefel all listened to Trump and other speakers at the rally before heading to the Capitol, where the fateful vote was to take place.
News reports have highlighted how Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who has led legal efforts to overturn the results of the election, called for “trial by combat” in his remarks at the rally. But Wolcott and Farris said the speeches mostly left them underwhelmed, simply parroting many of the talking points that Trump’s camp had used since losing the election.
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“I was hoping for great revelations of information, but there kind of wasn’t,” said Wolcott, who owns a pawn and gun shop in Slidell.
Attendees said they were struck by how few police officers they saw at the Capitol and along the way to it. Clavier, a real estate broker, said he’s used to seeing streets packed with officers working crowd control at Mardi Gras parades and other major events in New Orleans. But it was nothing like that Wednesday.
Todd, Farris, and Clavier all said they didn’t think much of it. They said they simply planned to demonstrate peacefully, to give lawmakers a visual reminder about how many people were upset about the election.
Michael Farris snapped this picture of people gathered for a pro-Trump rally in Washington D.C. Farris said the rally was peaceful, and he condemned those who later invaded the Capitol. (Photo provided by Michael Farris)
Todd, who was accompanied by his father, David Durio, and nephew, Jacob Todd, said he worried things might take a sinister turn when he saw people approaching members of the crowd and telling individuals they were looking for folks “to storm the Capitol.” He said he brushed off one person who made such a suggestion, saying: “What are you talking about? This isn’t how this works.”
But some of those in the crowd weren’t of the same mind as Todd. They muscled through police lines, entered the building and occupied the Senate and House chambers.
Police shot one woman to death. A police officer died Thursday night after being injured during the melee. A few others died from medical emergencies, including one man whom Todd recalled seeing outside the Capitol.
Vice President Mike Pence presided over the joint session.
“We couldn’t get to him to help him,” Todd said. “It was horrible.”
Authorities locked down the building until they regained control and cleared it of invaders. The siege, which has since prompted the Capitol police chief’s resignation, not only delayed Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory until early Thursday. It also shocked the world.
The Louisianans who were interviewed for this story all disavowed the takeover of the Capitol. They also insisted that those intruders were a small minority of the group that went to the rally.
“The few people who went in are not indicative of this movement. They’re just not,” Clavier said.
Though Trump lost both the popular and Electoral College votes to Biden by ample margins, Clavier noted that more than 74 million American still cast their ballots in favor of the president.
“In that broad spectrum, you will have a nutcase,” Clavier said. “But the vast majority are level-headed, hard-working Americans who want a functioning, efficient government which isn’t f---ing them over, and to know that their vote counts.”
Not everyone agreed that attendees and organizers of the “Save America March” could disassociate themselves from the Capitol invasion.
Kenner native Bhavna Pandit Ghia, a Democratic political fundraiser who has lived in Washington for 20 years, said her experience Wednesday in her Capitol Hill neighborhood was not unlike being hit by a hurricane. Her son’s preschool is closed until next week, after the campus was locked down most of Wednesday with teachers unable to mute the commotion from outside. The mayor imposed a 6 p.m. curfew, and neighbors have discussed whether it’s better to just evacuate until things subside.
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” Ghia said of her neighborhood. “It was as horrific as you saw [on the news]. There’s no sensationalism.”
Having taken his co-workers to the march as sort of a “political field trip,” Ryan Robin of New Orleans said he realized things were devolving into chaos when he got tear-gassed and suddenly found himself trying to navigate his way out of the crowd.
“It went from something pretty nice … so quickly to something stupid,” Robin said. “My stomach turned immediately.”
Robin said he was ashamed to be there and no longer considers himself a Trump supporter or Republican.
“Looking back, I’m like I should have never wasted my money,” Robin said. “I felt like I was used as a prop.”
Andrea Gallo contributed to this report. This post was updated to note that the critically wounded Capitol police officer had died.
