Ahead of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, people across the country protested including several hundred in downtown Asheville.
The protests followed the terminations of thousands of federal workers across every part of the country, according to the Associated Press.
In Asheville, more than 200 people gathered Tuesday morning outside the federal building on Patton Ave. to call on President Trump to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach. Organizer Mary Graden said the protest came together in about a week.
“We saw the 50501 movement was putting together 'March 4th for our democracy' and so we were like, hey, that's perfect, let's go for it,” Graden said to BPR.
Graden is part of Good Trouble WNC, a group formed a year ago focused on mobilizing people to contact their senators and legislators.
Protesters held signs, flew flags, and chanted phrases like, “ The people united will never be defeated.”
Community members braved cool temperatures Tuesday morning to protest what they perceive as threats to social safety nets in the federal government.
Suzanne Redmond, 60, said cuts to disability would affect not only her life and cancer treatment but also her elderly mother’s life.
“ Right now, the cuts to Social Security disability would like really devastate my mother and me,” Redmon said. “We kind of trade off taking care of each other… I have a mortgage. I worked for decades as a nurse and I wish that I could still work.”
The Trump Administration, through a new office called the Department of Government Efficiency, eliminated federal spending and reduced the federal workforce.
In a so-called Valentine’s Day Massacre, thousands of probationary employees were eliminated. Trump advisor Elon Musk touted the changes as part of a necessary “major reform” of the government.
In Western North Carolina, staff from the National Forest Service and the National Park Service lost their jobs.
In a memo sent to federal departments last week, the Trump administration called on agencies to submit plans on how they will significantly downsize by March 13.
Opponents of the terminations took their fight to the judiciary. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup issued a temporary restraining order late last week, ordering the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to rescind directives sent to some agencies ordering them to fire their probationary employees, according to NPR.
