A crowd of protesters converged on the Lynnwood Convention center on Thursday night. These protesters, carrying signs with sayings such as “Honk for Justice” and “Trump is Not Above the Law”, called for President Donald Trump to refrain from intervening in the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election. This protest, which ran from 5 p.m. until about 7 p.m., was one of many nationwide united under the banner of “#ProtectMueller”.
The last person to leave the protest was a man named Hayden, a Democrat who wished to only be identified by his first name. He carried a cardboard sign that read, “Stop republican traitors” to describe his thoughts on the current political climate of America.
“[We protested] to try to stop Trump from ending the investigation into himself by impeding it. It’s ridiculous that he has any sort of control over that,” he said. “There needs to be outcry.”
The #ProtectMueller movement follows the midterm elections and the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the request of President Trump, which both took place this week. Trump had reportedly grown upset with Sessions, whom had been selected personally by Trump to be attorney general, shortly after he had been confirmed to the position when he removed himself from oversight of the Russia probe.
“He’s [influencing the Mueller investigation] to get people while they’re exhausted,” Hayden said. “He wanted to do it anyways; he just did it now, so it wouldn’t affect the outcome of the midterm, so he wouldn’t lose as many seats in the House and he was worried it might affect the Senate.”
Hayden attended the protest and soon socialized with two other men, one of whom held a sign that said, “Save the Mueller! Save the World!” Prior to the event, the men had never met each other before.
“[I came] to show solidarity among people with similar background and feelings,” he said. “There’s way, way, way more people who feel like us than feel like them.”
As for those who stayed at home, Hayden urged them to use their voice and join the movement to see the change they want to make.
“There’s no barrier to entry. You can just get in and try and if you just consistently show up, that’s more than [what] 90 percent of people are doing. There’s no adults in the room and there’s no grand trick here, you just have to show up and be involved,” Hayden said.
https://twitter.com/SheriElgin/status/1060705633358344193
Folks demonstrating for democracy in Seattle suburbs (Lynnwood WA) #ProtectMueller #WhitakerRecuse pic.twitter.com/g2rGSFn4vD
— Karen Fishler (@kfseattle) November 9, 2018
