Washington: Two of President-elect Donald Trump's closest advisers dismissed the thousands of people protesting his election victory as "professional" rabble-rousers and called on President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to intervene.
"I'm not sure these are even Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama supporters," former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday on ABC's This Week, citing an incident in which people were "banging on my car."
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Thousands in New York protest against Trump
Demonstrators in Midtown Manhattan shouting "not my President" rally against President-elect Donald Trump.
"These people are, you know, kind of like professional protesters more."
Senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News Sunday that Obama, Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and others should "come forward and ask for calm and ask for a peaceful transition, and ask their supporters which are masquerading as protesters now - many of them professional and paid by the way, I'm sure - ask them to give this man a chance so that this country can flourish."
Giuliani and Conway did not offer evidence that any protesters are paid professionals. Trump used similar language on Twitter last week.
The protests against Trump have been mostly peaceful. But Conway said many protesters aren't peaceful but are "there for nefarious reasons - they're booing us, they're spitting on us, they're causing all kinds of havoc."
Speaking to host Chris Wallace, Conway also suggested that professional, paid protesters were behind the anti-Trump demonstrations in cities across the country.
Wallace had asked Conway what Trump would do to reach out to those who were scared of what his presidency would bring, then read a portion of a statement Reid issued Friday charging Trump with assuaging the fears he said his campaign stoked.
"If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fuelled his campaign with bigotry and hate," Reid's statement read in part. "Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try."
Conway cited Trump's victory speech as evidence he was "off to a great start" in unifying the country, then turned her anger on Reid.
"Talk about not wanting my children to listen to somebody," Conway said. "I'm calling for responsibility and maturity and decency. I hope President Obama calls Harry M. Reid today and says cut it out."
Democratic Senator Cory Booker countered that demonstrators helped deliver equal rights to black Americans. "When you have a president in his campaign who ran saying things that are just contrary to a fact, but literally threatening to use presidential power in a way that erode the rights and privileges and equality of large sections of Americans: God bless the protesters," Booker said on NBC's Meet the Press.
At the same time, Booker urged protesters not to turn to "hateful speech" or violate "principles and ideals that are sacred in this country. We need to raise our voices, but we do not need to indulge in hate."
House Speaker Paul Ryan also struck a more conciliatory note than the Trump advisers. "As long as protests are peaceful, if people want to express themselves that's what we can do in this country, that's what the First Amendment is all about," Ryan said on CNN's State of the Union.
Giuliani largely skirted a question of whether Trump has a responsibility to address reported incidents in which Trump supporters have been involved in racially motivated intimidation. "They shouldn't be doing it either," Giuliani said of the instigators, before saying that the "major focus" is the people protesting the president-elect.
"The First Amendment says that we can protest and call on our government to address grievances," Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a candidate to head the Democratic National Committee, said on ABC. "These folks are telling Donald Trump that if he tries to move out on his plan to have a deportation squad, to harm Americans, and if he tries to do that, we're going to be there to stand and say no."
Thousands take to streets for fifth day
Demonstrators across the United States planned to take to the streets for a fifth straight day on Sunday to protest the election of Donald Trump, as the president-elect sparred on social media with one of the nation's largest newspapers.
Protests were scheduled for Sunday afternoon in New York City and Oakland, California, according to online announcements.
Thousands in several cities have demonstrated since the results from Tuesday's election showed Trump lost the popular tally but gained enough votes in the 538-person Electoral College to win the presidency, surprising the world.
Largely peaceful demonstrators have decried Trump's campaign promises to restrict immigration and register Muslims, as well as allegations the former reality-TV star sexually abused women.
Dozens have been arrested and a handful of police injured.
Chanting "Not my president" and "love trumps hate," people marched in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere on Saturday, saying Trump threatens their civil and human rights.
Police in Portland, Oregon, where a protester was shot but not seriously injured early on Saturday, said they arrested more than 20 people late Saturday after protesters tossed burning flares and bottles at them and refused orders to disperse.
In New York, several thousand protesters marched peacefully up Fifth Avenue before filling the streets at the foot of Trump Tower, the president-elect's skyscraper home.
Civil rights groups have monitored violence against US minorities since Trump's win, citing reports of attacks on women in Islamic head scarves, of racist graffiti and of bullying of immigrant children. They have called on Trump to denounce the attacks.
Trump, a Republican, resumed his complaints against the media on Sunday on Twitter, attacking the New York Times for coverage that he said was "very poor and highly inaccurate."
Wow, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the "Trump phenomena"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2016
The @nytimes sent a letter to their subscribers apologizing for their BAD coverage of me. I wonder if it will change - doubt it?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2016
The newspaper published a letter in Sunday's editions from publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Dean Baquet, not apologising, but thanking readers for their loyalty and asking how news outlets underestimated Trump's support.
The Times plans to "hold power to account, impartially and unflinchingly" during the Trump presidency, they wrote.
Bloomberg, Reuters