Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Washington Post reports:
The crowds that typically flow into the District on Independence Day to line the streets for a parade or to get a prime spot on the Mall to see the fireworks were markedly thinner this year. Dan Stessel, a Metro spokesman, said that as of 9 p.m., there were 34,000 trips taken on Metrorail for Saturday, compared with just more than 315,000 on July 4 last year.
The throngs were often headed in different directions. Hundreds flocked to Black Lives Matter Plaza, which has been the gathering place for more than a month for demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by police in Minneapolis. Hundreds more ventured to the Mall for protests or to celebrate the nation’s founding.
The day was capped, as usual, with the spectacle of fireworks and flyovers, even as an evening speech by Trump was riven with the kind of racially divisive, partisan rhetoric that had dominated his remarks the day before at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
Fourth of July on the Mall! @ABC7News pic.twitter.com/ihrbHNAq24
— Ashlie Rodriguez ABC7 (@ABC7Ashlie) July 4, 2020
The National Mall minutes before the Salute to America flyover
Around half are wearing face coverings
Of the more than 300,000 free white cloth coverings on hand from the Trump administration, we’ve seen a little under two dozen wearing one pic.twitter.com/BNA6176Fau
— Ken Duffy (@KenDuffyNews) July 4, 2020
NO ONE is at Trump’s 4th of July extravaganza. Completely empty at National Mall, public plays it smart and ignores Trump and his big show. pic.twitter.com/Q2qAqkvKnP
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) July 4, 2020