Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside the Woodbury studios of News 12 Long Island over the weekend to protest alleged voter fraud and media coverage of the 2020 election’s results, with the first to arrive being a North Shore contingent.
Over 30 cars met in the parking lot of the Manhasset Macy’s store on Sunday morning, sporting Trump campaign merchandise and with American flags adorning their vehicles.
Ben Rabizadeh of Great Neck was among the group and said that he heard of the event over Facebook.
“The evidence of voter fraud is so overwhelming,” Rabizadeh said in an interview. “And it needs to be exposed at this point. I don’t care if Trump wins or loses. But everything needs to come out. Because voter fraud is suppressed, the media is not reporting it. The media is not reporting that voter fraud. And as a result of that, half the country has no faith in the election system right now.”
He added that he had seen evidence of voter fraud reported, but did not specify where. No specific incidents have been reported by the New York State Board of Elections.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that it had contacted election officials in all 50 states, and dozens of officials in both parties said there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities had affected the outcome of the presidential election.
“We get our news, not just from CNN, Fox News, we get it from lots of other places,” Rabizadeh said. “And we’ve seen evidence of massive systematic voter fraud. And if it’s not exposed, if it’s not exposed, what’s going to happen is Republicans are never going to vote again and Democrats are going to cheat again. And that means we live in a banana republic.”
The attendees later drove to Woodbury to protest in front of the News 12 studios and offices. Kim Boyette of Merrick, treasurer of the Bellmore Republican Club, traveled with the group.
“This rally here in front of News 12 is because the press has been unfair,” Boyette said.
Boyette said that the station had interviewed Shawn Farash, an organizer of recent pro-Trump events and co-founder of the Long Island Loud Majority, on Saturday for 45 minutes and “didn’t give him a minute of airtime,” but did broadcast interviews with five supporters of Joe Biden.
“That’s not fair,” Boyette said. “We’re just looking for fair reporting. It’s all we’re looking for.”
“We also believe that they hijacked our elections,” she continued. “There’s no way that there has not been some unfair reporting or underreporting of the ballots on the election.”
The Manhasset group was among the first to arrive of what organizer and Long Island Loud Majority co-founder Heather Liebman said were over 6,000 people from across the island.
In addition to the presidential election, the event’s leaders commented on the 3rd Congressional District race between financial professional and Republican candidate George Santos of Queens and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove).
The incumbent congressman trailed Santos by over 4,100 votes, according to Election Day totals from the New York State Board of Elections, but under state regulations, tens of thousands of absentee ballots will not be completely counted until next week. A majority of those ballots were cast by Democrats, Suozzi has said, expressing confidence that he would win.
Farash led a chant of “Santos” with those gathered.
“As far as George Santos goes, I hope that they keep his votes the way they are because New York right now is trying to steal local Senate and Congress [seats] as well,” Liebman said in an interview. “They’re saying they found ballots, and they’re actually trying to steal George Santos’ votes. So I just hope that any fraud reveals itself.”
Efforts to reach News 12 Long Island for comment were unavailing, though the outlet did broadcast 17 seconds of footage of the event captured from behind the studio’s front doors and reported that the participants numbered 200.
“Let us be who we are,” Boyette said. “We are reasonable. We care. We love the country. I don’t hate Democrats. But I think my voice matters. And they’re not showing the other side. I really think that they need to stop being biased and start spreading the news.”
