Facing freezing temperatures and high winds, more than a thousand people gathered on the snowy Statehouse lawn Saturday to rally for women’s rights and denounce the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration.
The event, which was affiliated with the national 50501 and Women’s March protest movements, was held concurrently with similar rallies around the U.S. and internationally.
The rally was the largest so far of several anti-Trump protests in Vermont since the president was inaugurated to his second term in January. An early February event drew hundreds to the Statehouse lawn, and last weekend hundreds more gathered in Waitsfield to speak out when Vice President JD Vance visited the Mad River Valley for a ski vacation.
Among the speakers Saturday was Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, whose office has signed onto several multi-state lawsuits fighting Trump’s executive orders, including one filed Thursday concerning the administration’s mass layoffs of federal employees.
Rep. Becca Balint, who this week declined to attend Trump’s joint address to Congress, cheered the crowd for protesting Vance’s visit and for gathering at the Statehouse. “Vermonters show up,” she said.
