Breaking:
Seattle police said on Twitter on Wednesday night that they were investigating a report of a shooting with "multiple victims" near the scene of protests over the surprise victory of Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election.
The Seattle Fire Department said on Twitter that crews were treating five patients with gunshot wounds, two of them with life-threatening injuries.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was related to the demonstrations. Seattle police said on Twitter that more details would be released "as they become available."
Earlier Story:
Protests organized on social media drew thousands in major cities across the country to blast the election of Donald Trump as president.
CNN reported that people had taken to the streets in Philadelphia, Seattle, Boston, Portland, Oakland, California, Chicago and New York City.
Crowds chanting, "Stop Donald Trump!" alternating with Black Lives Matters support and vulgarities filled the streets as a crowd of about 500 gathered at Union Square in New York and built up to thousands as it moved to Trump Tower, according to CNN, which credited a group called Socialist Advantage with organizing the protests on social media.
Protesters were angry not only with the surprise election on Tuesday of Republican Donald Trump, but also with the Democratic Party for nominating Hillary Clinton. They said Clinton's top challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, could have actually defeated Trump in the general election.
Socialist Advantage protests Trump as president, but also that the Democratic Party nominated Hillary Clinton, rather than Bernie Sanders, whom they believed could have stopped Trump.
Democratic analyst Paul Begala told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves.
"And I blame myself and the rest of my party for not inspiring these young people," Begala said. "I tried my hardest. I broke my back. I did. I know I failed, and I'm dealing with that. Cost me a lot of sleep. But I need and others like me to find a way to connect with these people."
The Democratic Party should have moved young people to have voted on Tuesday so they would not have to protest on Wednesday, he said.
"And that is the failure of the elites and the establishment in my party," Begala said, though he added that some of the blame falls on the protesters if they didn't vote.
"They should have been south there voting," he said. "It is mostly on me."
Other reports attributed the organization to the liberal group MoveOn.org.
A MoveOn press release said a protest also would take place outside the White House, and that they were targeting Trump to "take a continued stand against misogyny, racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia."
One protester, a female Latina, told CNN she did vote, but joined the protest because she believes Trump "condones racism, fascism, bigotry."
She said she does not believes Trump's words in his acceptance speech that he wants to unify the country and be the president of all people.
"Well, once you base your electoral race on bringing down certain groups and objectifying people, you can't just change that," she said. "You can't erase everything that you have said about women, gays, Latin Americans — anything like that. The blacks. Anything. You can't erase it."
Van Jones, former member of the Obama administration, said the protests show that the process is working.
"The democratic process is voting. It is also free speech. It is also peaceful assembly and petition for redress," he said. "Give them that. Give them a minute."
Jones said he would have said the same thing had Clinton won and Trump supporters were protesting in the streets.
Bill Bennett, who served as education secretary in the Reagan administration, told Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File" that the protesters are having a "temper tantrum," but agreed with Jones' assessment they are exercising their constitutional rights.
"If people thought we would have a 24-hour or 48-hour break, we don't," he said. "They are exercising their free-speech rights. But what exactly are they protesting?"
The protest in Chicago was taking place outside Trump Tower in that city.
Many on Twitter doubted Jones' assessment that anti-Clinton protesters would have engendered the same support.
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