Social media posts show how former fringe mayoral candidate Ellen Lee Zhou was in attendance at Wednesday's disturbing D.C. madness, and we watched her videos so you don’t have to.
If you’re wondering if anyone from the Bay Area attended Wednesday's Trump-induced riot and looting of the US Capitol building, we have an affirmative on that (not to mention this plane-ful from SFO). KPIX has an interview with a former Oakland cop who stormed the Capitol, who explained his behavior to reporter Joe Vazquez with, “"What do you think's worse, Joe, storming the Capitol with a flag or committing treason against your country?" (clearly oblivious to the irony of that statement).
But San Francisco also had a baby on board at the collective tantrum, as SFGate reports that repeat Republican mayoral candidate Ellen Lee Zhou was at the Trump rally. Zhou ran Starchild-caliber campaigns for mayor in both 2018 and 2019, and is probably best known for a gobsmackingly racist campaign billboard caricaturing London Breed.
Former San Francisco mayoral candidate Ellen Lee Zhou 李愛晨 was in the Washington DC rally today. They have a group called "Chinese American Alliance For Trump."
— Han Li (@lihanlihan) January 7, 2021
She told me some of the California Trump supporters drove five days from SF to DC to attend the event. pic.twitter.com/476Wz7HFpL
World Journal reporter Han Li first reported Zhou’s attendance, and spoke with her for a Chinese language article in that publication. According to Google Translate, she was there with an organization called Chinese American Alliance For Trump. “She said that she had already gone to the parade scenes around Capitol Hill and the White House at around 7 o'clock that morning, and did not return to the hotel until the curfew was announced in Washington in the evening,” World Journal says of Zhou, and that “like Trump, she insists that the election is full of fraud and fraudulent votes.”
— Ellen Lee Zhou for SF Mayor 2019 (@Ellen4SFMayor) January 6, 2021
We said ‘Fuck it’ and watched all of Zhou’s rambling videos from the scene, posted to her Twitter account. They are not entertaining, and make little sense. In the above video that seems straight outta Stalingrad, Zhou is standing amidst the Trumpalos, blurting occasionally random statements like “Mothers for Trump, Fathers for Trump, Catholics for Trump, Christians for Trump, Hong Kong for Trump.” This continues for 13 minutes.
“The fake media will not report, that’s why I am reporting for you to see that we have millions,” she says. (Ahem, Ellen, SFist totally giving you a post here!) Her “millions” attendance is contradicted by her other repeated estimates that there are “thousands and thousands” in attendance.
DC March for freedom. Pray for revival pic.twitter.com/MKZwu3Dj8o
— Ellen Lee Zhou for SF Mayor 2019 (@Ellen4SFMayor) January 6, 2021
There’s no indication that Zhou was involved in any of the violent incidents. Though she did tweet “DC In front of congressional hearing,” at 2:40 p.m. ET which is right before things went sideways, so perhaps the FBI ought to haul her ass in for questioning.
— Ellen Lee Zhou for SF Mayor 2019 (@Ellen4SFMayor) January 6, 2021
You tell from our tone that we consider Zhou to be a joke candidate, and we’ll maintain that tone if/when she runs again. But there is a troubling current of how fake-news house organs like the Epoch Times, and of course the propaganda advertising menace of Shen Yun, have created a solid Trumper element in the Chinese-American community. This despite his, you know, his obvious total contempt for them.
Related: Bay Area Leaders Call Capitol Breach 'Terrorism' and 'An Attempted Coup' [SFist]
Image: @Ellen4SFMayor via Twitter