Katherine Alford and Pat Almonrode, two of the demonstrators, were facilitators for the group Third Act NYC, which engages people over age sixty in pro-democracy and pro-environment action, often working in coalitions with other groups. “Everyone always thinks that people over sixty just get more conservative, and that’s just not true,” Alford said. “It’s ironic that, as a pro-democracy and pro-climate group, we’re protesting against electric cars. But you cannot sacrifice our democracy for one piece of the thing.”
Almonrode was happy to see members of the international press covering the demonstrations. “We want to make sure that the world understands that America is not Donald Trump, it’s not Elon Musk, it’s not doge, it is not the Republican lackeys in Congress,” he said. “It’s people like us, out in the streets.” He added, “They call people like us domestic terrorists.” Not so. “Trump himself is the biggest domestic terrorist.”