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Plenty of Pennsylvanians heading to President-elect Donald Trump's second inauguration

The crowd inside Mohegan Arena cheers for former President Donald Trump during a Luzerne County campaign stop on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024.
Alexander Monelli
/
WVIA News
The crowd inside Mohegan Arena cheers for former President Donald Trump during a Luzerne County campaign stop on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024.

Pennsylvania helped Donald Trump win re-election, and Pennsylvanians will celebrate his inauguration Monday.

Busloads of Trump supporters, including many from Northeast and North-Central Pennsylvania, will head for the Capitol to watch Trump take the oath of office for a second time.

They will include at least two supporters from Lackawanna County who were inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots.

Already the 45th president of the United States, Trump will be sworn in as the 47th, though the last-minute shift of the inauguration to inside the Capitol because of forecast cold weather may upset many plans.

Pat Rogan, a Lackawanna County realtor, said he will travel there with his brother, Josh. He wants to see history.

“It's only the second time in history somebody's come back for a second term after losing, and I didn't go (to Trump's first inauguration) and I regretted it,” said Rogan, a former Scranton city councilman. “There's only been 60 inaugurations ever.”

From indoors, Trump will address a large crowd that will still gather outside in 20-degree weather, including many of the Pennsylvanians.

Bresnahan: 'A lot of excitement'

U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Luzerne, sworn in for his first term on Jan. 3, will attend his first presidential inauguration.

“I've never attended one in my life, and now it seems like all of the planning and the logistics of the distribution of the tickets are now up into the wind, with it now being moved indoors,” Bresnahan said.

House members were allocated 20 tickets with seating and another 150 general admission, he said. Would-be attendees inundated his office with requests for tickets.

“I mean, there's just a lot of energy, a lot of excitement,” he said. “It's just people really taking it all in ... And listen, whether you're for Trump or against Trump, it’s not every day there's a presidential inauguration with this level of history attached to it. So being a part of history is again, it's these pinch me moments that you (get) to go through.”

Pa. helped re-elect Trump

Pennsylvania played a large role in Trump’s return to the White House. The Republican presidential nominee defeated Vice President Kamala D. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in all seven swing states, including Pennsylvania.

In winning, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state twice since President Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984) and only the third since World War II. President Dwight Eisenhower (1952 and 1956) was the other.

Trump won the state this time around by 120,266 votes. Reagan won by much larger margins, 324,332 in 1980, and 356,192 in 1984.

Scavo, Lee headed to D.C.

Former Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo, who pleaded guilty to parading inside the Capitol as rioters broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said he will also attend. He organized two buses to travel there to Washington, D.C., he said.

Deborah Lynn Lee, 58, of Olyphant, who was convicted in October after a trial on her role in the riots, also is planning to attend.

Lee was convicted of misdemeanor counts of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

She faces up to three years in prison and fines of up to $210,000 and is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 27.

Trump has promised to pardon Jan. 6 rioters.

Under her bail conditions, Lee was freed on her own recognizance, but barred from Washington, D.C., unless it was related to court or personal business matters, according to federal records.

Attorney William L. Shipley Jr., Lee’s lawyer, asked a federal court judge Jan. 10 to allow Lee to attend the inauguration. He argued she had complied with all her bail conditions.

A federal prosecutor argued Lee should be barred from attending because she refused to leave the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, despite being repeatedly asked to leave.

“When she was a few feet away from the east Rotunda doors, she saw a rioter hitting and damaging the east Rotunda doors,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos A. Valdivia wrote in opposition to Lee’s request. “While the rioter damaged the door, Lee urged other rioters to pass forward a stick that could be used to further damage and break down the doors. The rioters overwhelmed the outnumbered officers and breached the east Rotunda doors multiple times. Lee was one of the first 30 or 40 people who forced their way into the building. She was in the building for nearly an hour and made it as far as the House Chamber doors, where officers drew their guns to hold the rioters back.”

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui ruled Wednesday she could attend. Faruqui agreed with the prosecutor’s “characterization of what happened that day.”

“However, the general tragedy of that day is insufficient alone to predict violence by anyone, let alone by Ms. Lee, four years later,” he wrote. “In fact, the motivation — and the motivators — for the violence that day were mollified the moment the President-elect won. Miraculously, elections that yield a winning result are fair and valid, but a losing result (is) stolen and invalid. Regardless, without the bogeyman of a stolen election, the risk of violence seems nonexistent. Ms. Lee is coming to celebrate, not demonstrate.”

Borys joins WVIA News from The Scranton Times-Tribune, where he served as an investigative reporter and covered a wide range of political stories. His work has been recognized with numerous national and state journalism awards from the Inland Press Association, Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, Society of Professional Journalists and Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association.

You can email Borys at boryskrawczeniuk@wvia.org