Actors, mayor lead rally in NYC on eve of inauguration
NEW YORK — Actors Robert De Niro, Sally Field and Mark Ruffalo joined hundreds of other people outside a Donald Trump building on Thursday for a pre-inauguration demonstration organizers said was meant to energize those concerned about the Republican president-elect’s policies.
The anti-Trump rally was held outside of the Trump International Hotel in Columbus Circle on Thursday evening, CBS New York reported.
Actor Mark Ruffalo shared a photo from the protest, thanking people for coming out.
This land is your land. This land is my land. Thanks to all who came out. #WeStandUnited pic.twitter.com/x9WVpItO37
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) January 20, 2017
The event was a rally for city residents who have vowed to pursue their own policies on health care, the environment and other issues during the Trump administration. The mayors of Minneapolis and New York attended.
“We can’t just mope,” said Bronx resident Jawanza Clark, who attended the gathering with his two sons, ages 10 and 5. “I want to give them a sense of the America they’re inheriting, the fact that they have to lift their voices up.”
Civic-mindedness was a theme throughout the evening.
Movie director Michael Moore urged people to regularly call their representatives in Congress. And actor Alec Baldwin, who portrays Mr. Trump on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” said Americans wary of Trump’s policies should become more involved.
Baldwin briefly did his Mr. Trump impression, which has drawn barbs from the president-elect.
Among the groups that helped organize the event were Greenpeace, Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.org.
Some mayors, including New York Democrat Bill de Blasio, have made a point of defying potential Trump policies.
“I think it’s important to defend the needs of the people,” de Blasio said.
But a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows New Yorkers are split on how de Blasio should deal with the Trump White House. Forty-six percent said de Blasio should try to get along with Mr. Trump, while 45 percent said de Blasio should be a national leader in opposing Mr. Trump’s policies.
Mr. Trump, a billionaire New York real estate mogul, was in Washington, D.C., where he’s scheduled to be sworn in Friday as the 45th president.
Mr. Trump, who was supported by the Ku Klux Klan while running for president, has been criticized by rivals for his tough talk, especially on immigration. He has proposed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, using a deportation force to remove people in the United States illegally and banning Muslims from entering the country.
He also has pledged to eliminate gun-free zones and falsely suggested his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, wanted to abolish the Second Amendment, about the right of the people to keep and bear arms.