A Trumpist mob invaded the Capitol to prevent …

The certification of Electoral College votes that the US Congress was going to do on Wednesday could not go as planned. Animada by Donald Trump, a crowd stormed the Capitol in Washington to prevent the session that would recognize Democrat Joseph Biden as the country’s next president. Vice President Mike Pence had to be evacuated and members of both chambers had to take cover when the building entered an emergency lock. The mayor of Washington called the National Guard and ordered a curfew to stop the unrest.

“Our democracy is under an unprecedented assault,” Biden said at a press conference in which he called on Trump to “defend the Constitution” and demand that the “siege” on Capitol Hill cease. “The chaos scenes don’t reflect the real America. They do not represent who we are, ”said the president-elect. “What we are seeing is a small number of illegal extremists. It is not dissent, it is disorder. Slash sedition and must end. Now, ”he added.

The images of this Wednesday are unprecedented in the American capital. “Insurrection”, says the Senater Mitt Romney refer to chaos. “Violent aggression,” called the former president George W. Bush. Some Democratic representatives directly called it an “attempted coup”.

Instead, Trump recorded a short White House video which he posted on Twitter. In this way, he asked his supporters to return home, insisted that they steal the election and said goodbye, saying: “We love them. They are very special”.

The video, far from dispersing fans, outraged opponents and prompted Twitter and Facebook to take action on the post. “This is an emergency and we are taking all appropriate measures, including removing the video of President Trump. We removed it because, in general, we believe that it contributes to the risk of continuing violence rather than reducing it, ”he explained. Guy Rosen, the Facebook manager in charge of security and integrity issues. At first, Twitter just added a warning label and removed the ability to share it. He also did so with the following message from the president, in which he insisted on a supposed victory that had been stolen from him. Twitter later shut down Trump’s account for 12 hours.

A procedure that turned into chaos

Extremists arrived at the Congress building in the afternoon after hearing from Trump at an event in the White House area. “We never admit defeat”, had declared the magnate in front of those which had been summoned to Washington to protest against the vote of the electoral college while counting that the lawmakers would begin.

In that same speech, he omitted the possibility of going to Capitol Hill to pressure representatives and senators to reject Biden’s triumph. His supporters paid attention to him and they headed there, while Trump returned to the White House.

In Congress, the session had just started. Pence had already officially announced that he was considering playing no other role than the symbolic role reserved for him by the Constitution: to allow debate, count the electoral college votes and ask if there were any objections from lawmakers.

First came the certification of the nine voices of Alabama. Everything for Trump, they received no objection. Senators and Representatives also approved the three voters of Alaska, another state in which the Republican Party won. But with the third, Arizona, came the first rejection by Republican members of both chambers.

Pence then asked each body to step down to debate whether or not to accept the objections to the votes of the Arizona. “If these elections were called off because of simple accusations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a deadly spiral. We would never see the entire nation accept an election again, “said the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. But another group from its own party decided to go ahead with the rejection in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

According to procedure, each chamber has up to two hours to debate such objections, but none has managed to define the fate of Arizona’s votes. As soon as pro-Trump extremists managed to enter the Capitol, Pence was evacuated. The police also had the congressional offices near the building emptied.

The president’s fans pierced the thin police cordon guarding the building, smashed the windows, and entered the building. This is the first time since 1814 that there has been such an intrusion into Congress. “We are not going to back down,” they wrote to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in a message they left in his office. They were in the lower house and the Senate precinct. They carried the Confederate flag, which had not even been in Congress during the years of the country’s civil war.

The Mayor of the City of Washington, Muriel bowser, declared a curfew from 6 p.m. local (20 Argentina). He had to seek help from the neighboring state of Virginia, which sent members of its National Guard, members of the state police, and joined the emergency measure.

It was only after dark and over three hours had passed since the chaos did the crowds outside the building begin to disperse. Those who remained in the area before the curfew destroyed media teams such as the Associated press and many remained in the region despite the entry into force of the media.

US media reported that a woman was shot in the afternoon and was treated by medics, but died in hospital. The circumstances under which this happened are still unclear. In the afternoon, the police arrested only 13 people. Police also reportedly found and removed at least one explosive device left by protesters in the office of a congressman.

Four hours after the break-in, the Capitol Security chief declared the building safe. Lawmakers, whose location was not disclosed as long as the chaos lasted, prepared to continue counting the electoral college’s votes. “We’re going to stay, whatever the cost. These thugs won’t chase us away“Said the Democratic Senator Joe manchin to a group of journalists who were still in Congress. Wednesday evening, the session resumed.