Downtown St. Louis demonstrators relish Trump loss, vow to keep protesting for progressive policy

Nov. 8--ST. LOUIS -- Hours after former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the winner in the presidential election, members of liberal advocacy groups gathered downtown Saturday to take in the victory over President Donald Trump and vow to keep pushing for progressive reforms.

Carrying signs that included "Dump Trump is just the beginning," and "Quarantine Trump forever," the group marched from City Hall to the Thomas F. Eagleton Courthouse, which organizers said symbolized the coming fight they expect Trump to wage in the federal courts to try to hold on to power.

"It's just the beginning of it," said St. Louis resident Melissa Bailey. "I think he's going to cause a lot of trouble."

She carried a sign that read: "How you get fired on your day off?," a reference to the Saturday call by most major news outlets of a decisive electoral victory for Biden.

But Bailey said demonstrations like the one Saturday are especially important as the nation waits to see how the transition of power will unfold from a president who had yet to concede and on Saturday evening was still claiming on Twitter that he won the election.

Others in the group were less worried that Trump would upend the country's nearly 250-year streak of peaceful transitions of power.

"I think he'll get shamed," said Debi Pratt, 62, of St. Louis, who speculated that Trump's children will convince him to step down in an orderly manner.

Protest leaders warned that some Trump allies, such as U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., were standing by the president and his attempts to cast doubt on the election's legitimacy.

Shortly before the demonstration began, Hawley tweeted: "The media do not get to determine who the president is. The people do. When all lawful votes have been counted, recounts finished, and allegations of fraud addressed, we will know who the winner is."

The crowd booed loudly whenever Hawley was mentioned. But Pratt was hopeful, saying she thought Hawley's views were not "in the mainstream" among his GOP colleagues.

Demonstrators briefly blocked the intersection of Market Street and Tucker Boulevard near City Hall, chanting for about 10 minutes as police redirected traffic around the gathering.

The leaders of the group, made up of many frequent protesters who had been active all summer during a resurgent Black Lives Matter movement, said protesters needed to keep pushing a Biden administration to protect reproductive rights and enact criminal justice and environmental reforms.

On Saturday, though, Antoinette Cole was just ready to take in the Democrats' win and relish the thought of a departing Trump, who she said made "everything stressful."

"I've been protesting for the last four months, but today it's just different," said Cole, of St. Louis County. "After the inauguration, I don't want to hear his name again."

Told Trump could run for president again in 2024, she gasped: "No way."

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