Eliana Willis

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    The long list of Republicans who voted to reject election results

    The Senate and the House of Representatives convened on Wednesday to perform what is traditionally seen as a purely ceremonial vote: to certify each state’s presidential election results.
    At a rally before the vote, Donald Trump continued to baselessly insist that the election results – which he lost to Democrat challenger Joe Biden – were rigged and the US president helped instigate a mob to storm the US Capitol building and halt the process.
    The attack shocked many Americans but even after the pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol, a handful of Republican senators and more than a hundred Republican representatives continued to back Trump’s false claims and objected to certifying the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
    The list of Republican lawmakers who objected to both results includes Texas senator Ted Cruz, who ran against Trump in 2016 presidential election only to have Trump suggest that Cruz’s father was involved in president John F Kennedy’s assassination. It also include Missouri senator Josh Hawley who is seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate. And it includes the majority of Republican House members.
    Here’s the full list.
    Full list of people rejecting certification More

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    Pro-Trump mob chases lone Black police officer up stairs in Capitol – video

    A journalist captured the moment a lone Black police officer was confronted by pro-Trump supporters who had stormed into the US Capitol in what some lawmakers condemned as an attempted insurrection aimed at overturning the results of the presidential election.
    A politics reporter at HuffPost, Igor Bobic, filmed the officer as he was chased up the stairs of the building by Trump loyalists who objected to the certification of Joe Biden as the next president, which was taking place in Congress during a joint session. Four people died during the violent occupation
    American carnage: how Trump’s footsoldiers ran riot in the Capitol
    Full report: Congress certifies Joe Biden as president More

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    US Capitol stormed: what we know so far

    A mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill and clashed with police on Wednesday afternoon, apparently driven by the prospect that they might stop the certification of the 2020 federal election in favour of Joe Biden. The attack came after Trump urged a crowd of supporters to march on the Capitol and undo his November election defeat.
    A woman shot in the chest on Capitol grounds as the pro-Trump mob stormed the building died soon afterwards. Earlier reports indicated the woman was in a critical condition after being shot in the chest as the Capitol was breached. Dustin Sternbeck, a spokesman for the DC police, confirmed the woman’s death.
    The mob managed to enter the Senate chamber where minutes earlier the election results were being certified. A rioter stepped on to the dais and, according to a reporter on the scene, yelled: “Trump won that election.”
    Donald Trump praised the mob as “very special” people. The president justified the violence by citing baseless claims of widespread election fraud. In a video that Twitter has since deleted from his account, the president urged his supporters to “go home”, but also gave legitimacy to the falsehoods that fuelled Wednesday’s attempted insurrection, calling the election “stolen” and telling the angry mob, “we love you”. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have since locked the president’s accounts in order to address misinformation and the incitement of violence.
    Joe Biden called on Trump to “demand an end to this siege”. The president-elect said in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, “It’s not a protest; it’s insurrection. The world is watching.” Former President George W Bush also used the term “insurrection”.
    Barack Obama said history would rightly remember the violence at the Capitol as a moment of great dishonour and shame for the nation. Obama said it should not have come as a surprise, and that for two months “a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth”.
    Four hours after the breach, officials announced that the Capitol was secure. The siege was among the worst security breaches in American history. Senators were then escorted back into the Senate chamber to resume the certification of Biden’s victory. Vice-President Mike Pence opened the session, saying”: “To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today: You did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people’s house … Let’s get back to work.”
    The DC police chief, Robert Contee, said 13 people had been arrested so far in connection to the “riot” at the US Capitol. During the protests over the police killing of George Floyd, more than 400 people were arrested, mostly for curfew violations.
    A curfew in Washington DC went into effect at 6pm and will be in place until 6am on Thursday. As the curfew kicked in, an announcement played at the Capitol that anyone still on the grounds after 6pm would be subject to arrest.
    Representatives Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called for Trump to be impeached. Omar said that she was filing articles of impeachment.
    Facebook announced it would remove all photographs and and videos posted from the protest, as well as praise for the protests or calls to bring weapons to the protest or anywhere else in the US. The posts, “contribute to, rather than diminish, the risk of ongoing violence”, it said.
    Melania Trump’s chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham reportedly resigned, effective immediately, over the violence at the Capitol. Grisham was the former White House press secretary.
    The attacks were condemned by leaders around the world and within the US, though Trump allies including Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro maintained their support. More

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    Trump supporters gather outside statehouses across US as mob assails Capitol

    Supporters of Donald Trump massed outside statehouses across the US on Wednesday, leading to some evacuations as cheers rang out in reaction to the news that a pro-Trump mob had stormed the US Capitol in Washington.Hundreds of people gathered in state capitals from Georgia to New Mexico on the day US lawmakers were scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump in November’s presidential election.In scenes that echoed those in the US capital, Trump supporters waved signs that read “Stop the Steal” and “Four more years”. Most eschewed masks and some carried guns in places like Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Washington state. Despite some scuffles in states including Ohio and California, with instances of journalists or counter-protesters being pepper-sprayed or punched, many demonstrations remained peaceful.In Georgia, the secretary of state and his staff were evacuated from their offices at the state Capitol after about 100 protesters gathered, some armed with long guns.Gabriel Sterling, a top official with the secretary of state’s office, said it was a precautionary decision made by Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, for his team to leave. Trump has focused much of his ire on Raffensperger in the weeks following his loss of the state by about 12,000 votes.“We saw stuff happening at the Georgia Capitol and said we should not be around here, we should not be a spark,” Sterling told the Associated Press.The chaotic events in Washington DC came as Congress tried to affirm Biden’s electoral college victory. A pro-Trump mob entered the Senate chamber and forced lawmakers to flee. One woman was shot and killed.Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, slammed the storming of the US Capitol, calling it “a disgrace and quite honestly un-American”. Kemp said he was extending an executive order from protests over the summer activating the national guard in case they were needed to protect the state Capitol on Monday, when the legislative session begins.In New Mexico, hundreds of flag-waving Trump supporters arrived in a vehicle caravan and on horseback. Police evacuated staff from a statehouse building that included the governor’s office and the secretary of state’s office as a precaution.Demonstrators sang God Bless America, honked horns and declared Trump the rightful election winner, despite Biden winning the vote in New Mexico by a margin of roughly 11%.Brian Egolf, New Mexico’s Democratic house speaker, described it as a “shameful moment”.“It’s the first time in the history of the United States that the peaceful transfer of power has been slowed by an act of violence,” Egolf said. “I hope that the Congress can recover soon.”Elsewhere, Trump supporters circled the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, in cars and trucks adorned with Trump and US flags, blaring their horns.In Colorado, the Denver mayor, Michael Hancock, ordered city agencies to close buildings after hundreds gathered in front of the Capitol building to protest against the election results.And in South Carolina, protesters supporting Trump came to the statehouse but left before the US Capitol was breached.In Washington state, protesters broke through a gate at the mansion of the state’s governor, Jay Inslee, and dozens of people gathered on the lawn before being cleared from the area. The crowd, some of whom were armed, repeated baseless allegations of election fraud.Earlier, dozens of people gathered at the state Capitol, demanding an election recount.In Utah, the staff of Governor Spencer Cox was sent home as several hundred people gathered in Salt Lake City, the lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, tweeted. A Salt Lake Tribune photographer said he was pepper-sprayed by a demonstrator who taunted him for wearing a mask and shoved him as he was shooting video of the protest.At least one person was arrested at the Oregon Capitol in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct as police in riot gear tried to get people, many of them armed, to leave. Video showed protesters and counter-protesters clashing and riot police moving in.In Honolulu, about 100 protesters lined the road outside the state Capitol waving American and Trump 2020 flags at passing cars. Sheryl Bieler, a retiree in the blue state, said she had come out to “support our president and support the integrity of the elections”. More

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    Biden calls on Trump to 'demand an end to this siege' – video

    President-elect Joe Biden denounces the violence at the Capitol, after a mob of Trump supporters storm the building. ‘This is not dissent, it’s disorder, it’s chaos, it borders on sedition, and it must end now,’ Biden said. He then called on outgoing US president Trump to publicly ‘demand an end to this siege’
     Trump tells mob that stormed Congress ‘we love you’ as Biden condemns ‘siege’ – follow live
    ‘Trump blows up US democracy’: the world watches on in horror More

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    America shaken as violent pro-Trump mob storms Capitol building

    [embedded content]
    America was shaken on Wednesday as a mob of Donald Trump supporters staged an insurrection at the US Capitol building in Washington, storming the debating chambers and fighting police in clashes that left one person dead.
    The siege was among the worst security breaches in American history and came after Trump had earlier urged a crowd of protesters to march on the Capitol and undo his November election defeat.
    The violence halted the tallying of electoral college votes to affirm Joe Biden’s victory. Mike Pence, the vice-president, and members of Congress were evacuated to undisclosed locations for their own safety.
    Local police said one person had been shot inside the Capitol building. Later, Dustin Sternbeck, a spokesman for the DC police, told the Washington Post that the woman had died. More