AP
Washington Hispanic:
Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election early Thursday after a violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in an impressive attempt to annul the election presidential elections, undermine the nation’s democracy and keep Trump in the White House.
Legislators resolved to complete the Electoral College count in a display to the country, and to the world, of the nation’s enduring commitment to uphold the will of the voters and the peaceful transfer of power. They pushed through the night with high tensions and the country’s capital on alert.
Before Thursday, lawmakers finished their work, confirming that Biden won the election.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is chairing the joint session, announced the tally 306 – 232.
Trump, who had repeatedly refused to grant the election, said in a statement immediately after the vote that there will be a smooth transition of power on Inauguration Day.
«Although I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts support me, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on 20 January, “Trump said in a statement posted on Twitter by an attendee.
The Capitol was under siege Wednesday as the nation’s elected representatives ducked to crouch under desks and donning gas masks while the police tried futilely at corner the building, one of the most disturbing scenes that took place in a seat of American political power. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and the mayor of Washington instituted a nightly curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.
The rioters were incited by Trump, who he has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest the formal approval of Biden by Congress. Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on their behalf when the process was abruptly stopped by the mob.
Together, the protests and electoral objections of the Business People’s Party they constituted an almost unthinkable challenge to American democracy and exposed the depths of the divisions that have swept through the country during Trump’s four years in office. Although efforts to prevent Biden from being sworn in on 20 were sure to fail, the support Trump has received for his efforts to overturn the election results has severely strained the nation’s democratic railings.
Congress reconvened in the evening, with legislators denouncing the protests that disfigured the Capitol and vowing to finish confirming the vote of the Electoral College for Biden’s election, even if it took all night.
Pence reopened the Senate and addressed the protesters directly: “You didn’t win.”
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the “failed insurrection” underscored lawmakers’ duty to finish the count. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would show the world “what America is made of” with the result.
The president gave his supporters a push to action Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march on Capitol Hill. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room in the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television. At the urging of his staff, he reluctantly posted a couple of tweets and a recorded video telling his followers that it was time to ‘go home in peace’, yet he still said he supported their cause.
Hours later, Twitter for the first time shut down Trump’s account, demanded that he remove tweets that excuse violence and threaten a “permanent suspension.”
A grim President-elect Biden, two weeks after his inauguration, said that American democracy was “under unprecedented assault,” a sentiment that many in Congress, including some Republicans, have. Former President George W. Bush said he viewed events with “disbelief and dismay.”
The vaulted Capitol building has for centuries been the scene of protests and occasional violence. But Wednesday’s events were particularly astonishing both because they unfolded at least initially with the implicit blessing of the president and because of the underlying goal of nullifying the results of a free and fair presidential election.
Tensions were already subsiding when lawmakers gathered early Wednesday afternoon for the constitutional scrutiny of the results of the Electoral College, in which Biden defeated Trump, 306 – 232. Despite McConnell’s pleas, more than 150 GoP legislators planned to support objections to some of the results, although he lacked evidence of election fraud or irregularities.
Trump passed the pre-publicizing proceedings to Pence, who had a largely ceremonial role, to aid the effort to get rid of the results. He tweeted: “Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
But Pence, in a statement shortly before presiding, challenged Trump, saying he could not claim “Unilateral authority” to reject electoral votes that make Biden president.
After the siege, several Republicans announced that they would withdraw their objections to the election, including Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Who lost his bid for re-election on Tuesday.
Previously, protesters had fought the police and violated the building, shouting and waving Trump and United States flags United as they marched through the corridors, many of them without masks during the COVID crisis – 19. Lawmakers were told to duck under their seats for cover and put on gas masks after tear gas was used in the Capitol Rotunda. Some House lawmakers tweeted that they were taking refuge in their offices.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., Told reporters that he was in the House chamber when the rioters began to assault her. The security officers “made us all go down, you could see that they were defending some kind of assault.”
He said they had a piece of furniture against the door. “And they threw their guns at them,” Peters said. The windows of the door of a house were shattered.
The woman who was killed was part of a crowd that was breaking down the doors of a closed room where the armed officers were at the other side, police said. She was shot in the chest by Capitol Police and taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. City police said three other people died from medical emergencies during the lengthy protest on and around the Capitol grounds.
Staff members took out boxes of the ballots from the Electoral College while the evacuation was taking place. Otherwise, said Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., The ballots would likely have been destroyed by protesters.
The mob’s outrage at Congress sparked outrage, Mostly Democrats, but also Republicans, as lawmakers accused Trump of fomenting violence with his relentless falsehoods about voter fraud.
“Tell me,” said the Trump Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C. “Enough already.”
Several suggested that Trump be prosecuted for a crime or even removed under the 25 Amendment of the Constitution, which seemed unlikely two weeks after his term expires.
“I think Donald Trump should probably be raised in treason for something like this,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez , D-Calif., To journalists. “This is how a coup d’état begins. And this is how democracy dies. ”
Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Who has sometimes clashed with Trump, issued a statement saying:“ Lies have consequences . This violence was the inevitable and ugly denouement of the President’s addiction to constantly stoking division. ”
Despite Trump’s repeated claims of voter fraud, election officials and his Former attorney general himself have said that there were no problems on a scale that changed the outcome. All states have certified their results as fair and accurate by both Republican and Democratic officials.
In scoring their determination, both the House of Representatives and the Senate rightly rejected an objection to the Election results from Arizona, which had been raised by Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and another from Pennsylvania brought in by Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Scott Perry , R-Pa. Still, a majority of House Republicans supported the objections. Other objections to the results from Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin were puzzled.
The Pentagon said about 1. 100 members of the District of Columbia National Guard were being mobilized to help support law enforcement on Capitol Hill. Dozens of people were arrested.