Hundreds gather in Boston to demand investigation into Trump-Russia ties

Photo by Miriam Wasser

Against the backdrop of the State House dome and a giant American flag, at least 200 people gathered by the 54th Regiment Memorial in Boston Common Sunday afternoon to demand an independent and thorough investigation into any collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia.

The event was billed “An Emergency Rally to Stand for Democracy,” and many in attendance wore their pink knitted pussy hats from last month’s Women’s March and carried signs or banners.

“If there is even the smallest possibility that Trump conspired with Russians, then an investigation must occur because there has never been a greater threat to democratic principles,” Olivia Hartranft, one of the event organizers, told the crowd.

Hartranft, like every speaker of the day, also invoked the now-famous words of former US Senator Howard Henry Baker Jr., one of the leaders on the Senate committee investigating President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. “What did the president know and when did he know it?”

“We don’t know exactly how, but we know [Trump] is compromised by foreign nations,” said Bob Massie of the Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMASS Boston. In a short speech that sought to place the day’s gathering in a historical context of resistance and activism, Massie, who is considering a 2018 run for governor, also talked about the Revolutionary War and the Founding Fathers, noting, “They built a Constitution and Bill of Rights that was built on a set of principles that are now in danger. Can our nation continue to endure?” …Continue Reading in DigBoston