In a short, nearly 10 minute address in the rain, O’Donnell avoided jokes and kept the tone serious. She accused Trump of treason and aiding Russia.
Trump, who has traded insults with O’Donnell for years, has denied having any connection to Russia. The FBI and the Senate Intelligence Committee are currently investigating Russia’s tampering in the 2016 election and the president’s campaign staff’s alleged contacts with Russian officials.
You can watch O’Donnell’s full remarks here:
After her address, O’Donnell was approached by Jack Posobeic, an alt-right figure who believes in the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Posobeic asked O’Donnell how much George Soros—a billionaire with ties to many left-leaning causes—paid her to speak. During the 2004 election cycle, Soros donated heavily to Moveon.org, one of the organizers of the event.
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/836721051665117185
Soros has also donated millions to support refugees displaced by Trump’s executive order on immigration.
The rally and accompanying march was organized by a broad range of civil, healthcare, human rights, and environmentalist groups, including the ACLU, NARAL, Food and Water Watch, VoteVets, the Hip Hop Caucus, DC Justice for Muslims Coalition, and Bend the Arc, a Jewish social justice group.
The rally organizers noted on Facebook that Trump’s address before both houses of Congress was likely written by Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News who has been accused of promoting white nationalist and anti-immigrant views.
Food and Water Watch and Moveon.org stated as such in their Facebook event.
“This Tuesday, Trump will address the full Congress with a speech written by so-called ‘alt-right’ White House advisor Stephen Miller—the man who helped draft the Muslim ban,” the groups said in a statement. “We already know that his plans include a discriminatory agenda that puts profits before people’s health, undermines equality and damages our environment.”
As the rally continued, dozens of protestors clutching umbrellas stood in the rain and listened intently as speakers spoke out against Trumps administration’s policies on climate change, immigration, and crime—all topics Trump is expected to cover in Tuesday night’s speech before Congress.
