The White House, or more specifically Lafayette Park, is a typical gathering place for Washington, D.C. residents to join together in response to the nation’s biggest events, whether it’s to celebrate, mourn, or otherwise commune as the circumstances dictate. It’s guaranteed that on the night of a presidential election, perhaps more so than on any other night, the liberal city’s denizens will come out, as evidenced by the dozens of reporters and cameras already set up to cover their arrival.
And people did come out, but Tuesday night was definitely a different kind of evening on Pennsylvania Ave.
As the evening progressed, it became increasingly likely that Donald Trump would be the winner, and those who had gathered seemed unsure how to respond to it. In some ways, they had accepted the reality that Trump might be the President-Elect, but they generally just weren’t sure how to process it. Neither, admittedly, was this reporter.
You know that feeling when you’ve just heard something terrible, but it so overwhelms you that you kind of awkwardly laugh? It’s sort of a dumbfounded, stupefied feeling — a sense of awe and a sense of terror that you just can’t comprehend so you actually laugh, as if it just can’t possibly be true.
That was the vibe in Lafayette Park Tuesday evening. It was collective reassurance, an attempt to make light of the progression of the evening so as to deny what seemed to be the increasingly inevitable result.
“I’m worried for sure,” Mariah, a 25-year-old Howard University alumna told ThinkProgress. This was her second time voting for president, and she recalled the joy she found in front of the White House when President Obama was reelected in 2012. But now, that enthusiasm and hope was lost.
“It’s all the way different,” she said. “The mood is tense… I’m worried for sure. I don’t want to hold my breath.” Still holding out for what might happen, she said she expects she’ll cry sad tears for Trump instead of the happy tears she cried for Obama.
Nearby, a group of American University students was hanging out, waiting to see what might happen. “Other schools have tailgating, we have debate parties,” one of them offered, essentially explaining that they hadn’t really considered why they had come out; they just couldn’t imagine not.
But it seemed clear they were also seeking community. All first-time voters, they admitted that they had assumed Hillary Clinton would win. Now they were using words like “nervous” and “terrified” to describe their expectations, with some of them even joking about whether a Trump victory might lead to their deportation. One student told ThinkProgress she was hoping to find “a group to cry with or cheer with,” and the tone of her voice suggested she was preparing herself for it to be the former.
Mary Lee, 70, had just finished the day working the polls and similarly felt the need to be out. “I’m here to laugh or cry… to be with people.” She was disappointed in the turnout, describing the looming Trump victory as “not understandable.” Whatever the result, she said, “We need to be together.”
She had just made a new friend in Barbara, 65, with whom she was sharing a park bench. Barbara confessed to ThinkProgress that she had only come out to support her daughter, who was presently singing “This Little Light Of Mine” in a gospel choir on a small stage set up nearby. She wasn’t subtle about how the election results were making her feel: “I want to go home and curl up in a ball.”
For a while, the crowd was largely spread out in various clumps. At one point, a line of college students with arms linked approached the White House fence chanting “Black Lives Matter!” signaling a shift in the tentative energy of the evening.
Because of construction in Lafayette Park, the growing crowd was actually corralling itself into an area with fences on three sides. As it grew, there were chants like, “Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump!” or occasionally and less enthusiastic “Hillary! Hillary!” A number of the students in the crowd had supported third-party candidates and were less eager to cheer for a Clinton win than to object to Trump’s victory.
Joshua, a George Washington University student donning an American flag as a cape, told ThinkProgress that he had voted for Gary Johnson, a vote he said was on behalf of “more choices.” As a libertarian — “fiscally conservative and socially progressive,” as he described it — he wanted to vote for a fiscal conservative, but said watching Trump’s racism and misogyny “made it hard.” He had made a pro/con list for the candidates and there were “not enough pros to support Clinton.” When asked who he’d have voted for if he had to pick between the two, he admitted, “I can’t say I would have gone one way or another.”
The likelihood of Trump winning did make Joshua “nervous” and “scared,” but he was also particularly optimistic. “We don’t have to give up hope. This is still America,” he said. “We will persevere no matter what may happen.”
Rachel, a 33-year-old Latina woman who asked not to be photographed, was a bit more distraught. “We should not have a President,” she told ThinkProgress, only somewhat sarcastically. She voted for Clinton, but only as the lesser evil of the candidates. “This is the best America has to offer?”
But she was incredulous that Trump was winning. “I’m completely shocked this many Americans are voting for an idiot,” she said. “‘You’re fired!’ How is that going to be our President?” Asked how she would imagine a Trump White House, she responded simply, “Chaos.”
“I have children. Who’s going to screw with that more? That’s Trump.”
The later the night got, the more the crowd was dominated by college students, a mix of supporters of all of the candidates, including Trump. The dissent throughout the crowd seemed to echo the entire nation’s uncertainty and the evening’s inconclusiveness.
From the edge of the @WhiteHouse fence – 1:05 AM
Hundreds of college students. pic.twitter.com/wXGhdg9ni2— Jay Franzone (@JayFranzone) November 9, 2016
And though the students near the fence were getting increasingly rowdy, other pockets of the park were more solemn. One group of young people of color sat in a tight circle in complete silence. One young man rested his head half in his lap and half on a female friend’s leg; he was quietly weeping.
Rather than gathering to respond to an outcome, people were showing up in hopes the others who were there would have answers. But there were no answers Tuesday night. The fate of the White House and the fate of the country offered only more questions.