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The country’s elected officials rushed to crouch under desks and don gas masks as police unsuccessfully tried to barricade the building, one of the most shocking scenes to unfold in a seat of power American politics. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and the mayor of Washington instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.
The rioters were pressured by Trump, who spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest against formal approval by Congress of Biden’s victory. Some Republican lawmakers were raising objections to the results on his behalf when proceedings were abruptly interrupted by the crowd.
Taken together, the GOP’s electoral protests and objections posed an almost unthinkable challenge to American democracy and revealed the depth of divisions that have run through the country during Trump’s four years in power. While efforts to keep Biden from being sworn in on January 20 are sure to fail, the support Trump has received for his efforts to overturn the election results have severely strained the country’s democratic safeguards.
WATCH: Full coverage of the chaos at the Capitol
Congress convened again in the evening, with lawmakers denouncing the protests that degraded the Capitol and vowing to complete the confirmation of the Electoral College vote for Biden’s election, even though it took all night.
Before dawn Thursday, lawmakers finished their work, confirming that Biden had won the presidential election.
Vice President Mike Pence, chairing the joint session, announced the count 306-232.
Trump, who had steadfastly refused to concede the election, said in a statement immediately after the vote that “there will be an orderly transition” of power on inauguration day.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election and the facts confirm it, there will nonetheless be an orderly transition on January 20,” Trump said in a statement posted on Twitter by an aide.
SEE ALSO: Twitter locks down Trump account after deleting tweets about DC protesters
Pence had reopened the Senate after the hard day and addressed the protesters directly: “You didn’t win.”
WATCH: Vice President Pence addresses Congress as Electoral College certification resumes
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the “failed insurgency” underscored the duty of lawmakers to complete the tally. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would show the world “what America is made of” with the result.
WATCH: Mitch McConnell breaks up with Trump in steamy speech
The president gave his supporters a boost on Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march towards the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room next to the Oval Office watching violent scenes on television. At the urging of his staff, he reluctantly posted a pair of tweets and a recorded video telling his supporters it was time to ‘go home in peace’ – but he still said he supported them. cause.
Hours later, Twitter for the first time locked Trump’s account, demanded that he delete tweets excusing the violence and threatened with “permanent suspension.”
A grim President-elect Biden, two weeks before his inauguration, said American democracy was “under an unprecedented assault,” a sentiment shared by many members of Congress, including some Republicans. Former President George W. Bush said he viewed events with “disbelief and dismay.”
WATCH: Joe Biden calls on Capitol Hill crowd to ‘step back’, urges restore decency
The dome-shaped Capitol building has for centuries been the scene of protests and occasional violence. But Wednesday’s events were particularly astounding both because they unfolded at least initially with the president’s implicit blessing and because of the underlying goal of overturning the results of a free and presidential election. fair.
Tensions were already high when lawmakers met early Wednesday afternoon for the constitutionally-conforming Electoral College tally, in which Biden beat Trump, 306-232. Despite McConnell’s calls, more than 150 GOP lawmakers have planned to support objections to some of the results, despite lacking evidence of fraud or wrongdoing in the election.
Trump spent the lead-up to the proceedings publicly harassing Pence, who had a largely ceremonial role, to help the effort to dismiss the results. He tweeted: “Do it Mike, now is the 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 the president.
SEE ALSO: Rioter walks into Nancy Pelosi’s office, takes photos with her feet on her desk
In the wake, several Republicans announced they would drop their objections to the election, including Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Who lost her reelection bid on Tuesday.
Previously, protesters had fought outside police and entered the building, shouting and waving Trump and US flags as they walked the hallways, many without masks during the COVID-19 crisis. Lawmakers have been urged to hide under their seats for safety and to put on gas masks after tear gas was used in the Capitol Rotunda. Some House lawmakers tweeted that they were sheltering in place in their offices.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., Told reporters he was in the House bedroom when rioters began to assault him. The security guards “took us all down, you could see they were repelling some kind of aggression.”
He said they had a cabinet against the door. “And they fired guns,” Peters said. The windows of a door of the house were smashed.
The woman who was killed was part of a crowd breaking through the doors of a barricaded room where armed officers stood on the other side, police said. She was shot in the chest by Capitol Police and taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead. City police said three more people died of medical emergencies during the long protest on and around the Capitol grounds.
Staff members seized voting boxes from the electoral college during the evacuation. Otherwise, said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., The ballots would likely have been destroyed by the protesters.
SEE ALSO: Electoral College Ballots Saved As Protesters Storm U.S. Capitol, Says Senator
The mob’s storming of Congress sparked outrage, mostly from Democrats but also Republicans, as lawmakers accused Trump of fomenting violence with his relentless lies about voter fraud.
“Count on me,” said Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C. “Enough is enough.”
Several have suggested that Trump be prosecuted for a felony or even dismissed under the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, which seemed unlikely two weeks after his term expired.
“I think Donald Trump should probably be charged with treason for something like this,” Representative Jimmy Gomez, D-California, told reporters. “This is how a coup was started. And this is how democracy dies.”
Images of January 6, 2021
Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Who has at times been in conflict with Trump, issued a statement saying, “Lies have consequences. This violence was the inevitable and ugly result of the President’s reliance on constant division. “
SEE ALSO: US Lawmakers Respond to DC Protest That Locked Capitol Hill
Despite Trump’s repeated allegations of electoral fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general said there was no problem on a scale that would change the outcome. All states have certified their results to be fair and accurate, by both Republican and Democratic officials.
Punctuating their resolution, the House and Senate strongly rejected an objection to Arizona’s election results, which had been raised by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., And a another from Pennsylvania brought in by Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. Still, most House Republicans supported the objections. Other objections to the results of Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin failed.
The Pentagon said about 1,100 members of the District of Columbia National Guard were mobilized to help support law enforcement on Capitol Hill. More than a dozen people were arrested.
As night fell, law enforcement marched towards the protesters, using percussion grenades to clear the area around the Capitol. Large clouds of tear gas were visible. Police in riot gear descended the steps, confronting the protesters.
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Associated Press editors Jill Colvin, Kevin Freking, Alan Fram, Matthew Daly, Ben Fox and Ashraf Khalil in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2021 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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