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      in Elections

      America shaken as violent pro-Trump mob storms Capitol building

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      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

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      in US Politics

      Congress is facing an election reckoning. Democracy hangs in the balance | Lloyd Green

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      Democracy in the US teeters on the edge of a figurative sword. On Wednesday, the US Congress will convene to formally receive the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Unfortunately, Donald Trump and his allies have converted a legal formality into a blatant coup attempt.
      The ex-reality television host is like none who have come before him. Presidents Hoover, Carter and Bush Sr all suffered rejection at the ballot box after just one term. However painful, they accepted the electorate’s verdict. In the end, personal pride took a backseat to the orderly transition of power. The nation had spoken.
      Likewise, in 2000, Al Gore ultimately acquiesced to a split US supreme court decision, which the late Justice Antonin Scalia later confessed was “as we say in Brooklyn, a piece of shit”, and conceded to George W Bush. Adding insult to injury, Gore, who was then vice-president, presided over the joint session of Congress where the results were announced and certified. Fealty to the American experiment came first.
      Not any more. The US confronts a president determined to hold on to power past the constitutionally mandated expiration of his term, and congressional Republicans hellbent on aiding and abetting this desperate bid to overturn the election’s outcome.
      Last Thursday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, told his caucus that the upcoming votes were the “most consequential” of his career. It was not hyperbole. More than two centuries of supremacy of consent of the governed and We the People are riding on it.
      Beyond that, McConnell could be a witnessing a civil war among his own ranks. What was supposed to be his own post-election victory lap has evaporated in the face of a president who demands the self-sacrifice of others like a modern-day Moloch. Nancy Pelosi is not the only person on Capitol Hill with a headache. More

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      in US Politics

      Who are the key players in the US presidential election certification?

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      Congress is set to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election on Wednesday, but the process is expected to be interrupted by unfounded objections by Republicans trying to curry favor with Donald Trump and the base of voters that support him.Other Republicans have said they will not join efforts to overturn the election result after dozens of state and federal lawsuits, state legislative hearings and elections challenges at the local level have failed to produce a shred of evidence to support Trump’s wild and false claims of voter fraud.From 1pm ET, Congress will begin certifying the presidential election result, state by state. But any state result is subject to objection by any member of Congress – and if both a senator and a member of the House of Representatives sign on to any one objection, the two chambers must retire for up to two hours to debate the objection.Here is a short list of the key players to watch:Senators Josh Hawley and Ted CruzHawley, from Missouri, and Cruz, from Texas, are leading a group of Republican senators who have said they will join objections to state results.Each politician hopes to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, and their willingness to sign on to Trump’s baseless campaign is recognized as being a sign of their political ambitions.Challenges in the House of Representatives to a state’s presidential election result are not uncommon. The House is four times as large as the Senate and, with every member coming up for election every two years, the chamber is subject to constant turnover and the attending ideological turbulence.But the Senate has mostly sat out from past wild assaults on the valid results of presidential elections. Until now.Senators Tom Cotton and Mike LeeThe softness of support among even very conservative-slash-ambitious senators for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election signals the basic weakness of the effort and the series of question marks that lay ahead for the Republican party.Cotton, a blistering conservative from Arkansas, is also expected to run for president in 2024, while Lee is a conservative ally of Trump and a close ally of Cruz. But each senator has announced that he will not support objections to the state electoral tallies. There’s no telling what voters in a presidential primary three years hence will remember of the current episode, but Cotton for one has declined to join the Trump dead-enders.Mitch McConnellThe Republican Senate majority leader asked his caucus not to join challenges to the election result, and he dispatched his top lieutenant on national TV to announce that any such challenge “would go down like a shot dog”.And yet, about a quarter of McConnell’s caucus and a majority of newly elected Republican senators has signed on to Trump’s mission, in direct defiance of the party leader.How will McConnell handle challenges that he does not support from his own party to election results? Some progressives have indulged fantasies of a catastrophic Republican rift playing out on cable TV.In reality, most of America will not be watching and whatever rifts open are most likely to feed an internal party struggle such as it may develop.Nancy PelosiThe Democrat House speaker will be in charge of responding to objections raised in her chamber to state election results. Widely praised for her expedient and effective handling of the 2019 impeachment inquiry, Pelosi is thought to be organizing a united Democratic front with room for Republican recruits. In any case the battle is playing out on her turf of parliamentary procedure and coalition-building expertise.The House RepublicansA number of House Republicans, led by some of the hottest firebrands on Capitol Hill such as Alabama’s Mo Brooks and Texas’ Louie Gohmert, have vowed to object to a number of state election results. Unlike their counterparts in the Senate, some of these House members would appear to be acting not out of a cynical political calculus but as true believers in the Trump cause. Many are return figures from the defense of Trump during his impeachment in the fall of 2019.Mike PenceAs vice-president, Pence is the ceremonial president of the Senate, meaning he will serve as presiding officer for the announcement of Joe Biden’s election victory.As vice president at the start of 2017, Biden filled a similar role for the announcement of Trump’s victory. But unlike Biden, Pence is serving under a president who wishes to overturn the election result, introducing complications for Pence, who would like to stay on Trump’s good side as another potential 2024 presidential candidate.Speculative scenarios for an act of indecision or contravention by Pence abound – and seem largely overblown. Senator Chuck Grassley had suggested that Pence might absent himself from the proceedings, but it appears Pence will preside. Most analysts expect him to certify the presidential election result in accordance with the minor and ceremonial capacity allotted to him by the constitution. More

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      in US Politics

      Republicans face test of loyalty to Trump as Congress meets to certify election

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      After four years of defending and emboldening Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress on Wednesday will face their most consequential test of loyalty yet: to indulge the president’s brazen and meritless bid to overturn the results an election he lost, or to uphold the democratic process and certify Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.A handful of congressional Republicans are preparing to object to the certification of the electoral college results when Congress meets on Wednesday, turning what is traditionally a perfunctory affair into Trump’s last stand. Their coordinated rebellion, unprecedented in modern times, is all but destined to fail and Biden will be inaugurated on 20 January.In his increasingly desperate bid to cling to power, Trump, who has not conceded, has spent the last several weeks attempting to enlist allies and pressure public officials to overturn Biden’s 306-232 election win. His machinations escalated this weekend when he pressured the Georgia secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensberger, to “find” enough votes to reverse Biden’s win in the state.As required by the constitution, the joint session of Congress will meet to count the electoral votes. The votes will be delivered to the chamber in mahogany boxes and read aloud in alphabetical order of the states, with Mike Pence over the meeting. At the conclusion of the count, it is the vice-president who finally, formally declares the winner.Around the Capitol, authorities are bracing for “stop the steal” protests they fear could turn violent. Trump, who has encouraged his followers to join the gathering even as coronavirus cases surge across the country, said he plans to attend, as do several of his allies and a number of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys.Trump has been pressuring Pence to simply reject the vote count. On Tuesday, Trump claimed that “the vice-president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors”. This is false.A handful of Trump loyalists in the House have been planning this showdown for weeks. But in recent days the effort gained support from a quarter of Senate Republicans, first from Josh Hawley, an ambitious first-term Republican from Missouri. Days later, a coalition of Republican senators and senators-elect led by the Texas senator Ted Cruz announced their opposition to certifying Biden’s win unless Congress agrees to a 10-day audit of the election results, which is highly unlikely.On Monday, the Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler, vying to keep her seat, announced that she too would object. (David Perdue, the other Republican candidate in Georgia, supports the effort but will not vote because his term expired on Sunday.)In the House, where the effort is led by the Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally, Republicans said the plan to voice objections to Biden’s wins in six swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.To succeed, an objection must come from both a member of the House and the Senate. Hawley has said he planned to object to the results from Pennsylvania, while Cruz plans to object to the results in Arizona. Both are considered presidential contenders in 2024, seeking to ingratiate themselves with Trump’s fervent base.The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sought to avoid this internecine showdown, keenly aware of the political blowback members of his caucus will face – either for defying the president or attempting to subvert the will of millions of voters. Several Senate Republicans have condemned the effort – more than enough needed to ensure the campaign will fail. The Republican senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska has called it a “dangerous ploy”. And Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, one of the states that is expected to draw an objection, denounced what he said was his colleagues “effort to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others”.All 50 states have certified the election results after a number of closely contested states conducted post-election audits and recounts to ensure their accuracy. Courts at every level, including the supreme court, have rejected dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies to challenge the results.None of the senators who plan to reject the results of the election have come forward with specific allegations of fraud. Instead they have pointed to public opinion polls that show, after weeks of the president and his allies insisting the election was stolen from him, their supporters believe the election was “rigged” as evidence that further investigation was needed. More

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      in US Politics

      Georgia voters head to polls in critical Senate runoffs

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      Georgia voters headed to the polls on Tuesday for the final day of voting in a critical election that will determine which party controls the US Senate and what Joe Biden can achieve in the first two years of his presidency.After she cast her ballot on the chilly morning in Atlanta, Stephanie Aluko stood outside her polling place and noted how remarkable it was that the entire world was paying attention to her state.“It made people in Georgia see how important it actually is to vote,” she said outside Antioch Baptist church, where a steady stream of voters were able to quickly cast their ballots. “If the whole world is looking at you and paying attention to you, suddenly, maybe your vote matters.”Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock are trying to oust Georgia’s incumbent Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively. If Democrats win, they will win complete control of the US Congress, (the Senate would be evenly split with Kamala Harris, the vice-president-elect, casting the tie-breaking vote) allowing Biden to enact an ambitious policy agenda on items such as voting rights and the environment.If Republicans win even one seat, they will maintain their majority in the Senate, giving them a powerful veto in government and limiting what Democrats can achieve. A record amount of money has poured into the race, a reflection of its high stakes.The race is also a crucial test of a new emerging political power in Georgia. Long considered a conservative bastion, Joe Biden carried the state in November, the first Democrat to do so in nearly 30 years. The changing electorate is also being driven by efforts from Stacey Abrams and other grassroots groups, many led by Black women, to organize and mobilize voters of color.“To be able to be part of this specific election is memorable because I feel like my vote actually counted this time,” said Gabi Strode, 27, who also voted at Antioch Baptist church on Tuesday morning. “It’s surreal, kind of.”Georgia Democrats have not won a statewide runoff election in decades, according to ABC News, as Democratic turnout typically drops in the second race. But ahead of Tuesday, more than 3 million people had voted early, a record for a runoff election, with significant numbers in Democratic-leaning areas. Black voters have also consistently made up a higher percentage of the early electorate than they did at the same point ahead of the November general election, according to Ryan Anderson, who analyzes Georgia voter data and publishes to the website georgiavotes.comThe early vote data showed Republicans needed to have strong turnout on election day in order to win, said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.Meanwhile, there was a jolt in the lead-up to election day after the Washington Post published a recorded phone call in which Donald Trump, who lost Georgia by 11,779 votes, pressured Georgia election officials to change the results from the November election to make him the winner in the state. At a rally in Georgia on Monday evening, the president continued to falsely claim that he won more votes than Biden in the state.Several Republicans have backed Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, and several, including Loeffler, plan to object to Congress’s certification of electors in the presidential race on Wednesday“It makes me angry,” Shirley Rosser, 64, a voter in Atlanta said of Trump’s false claims about voter fraud. “It makes me want to kick his behind.”Polls are open until 7pm ET in Georgia and voters are entitled to cast a ballot as long as they are lined up by then. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s top election official, predicted there would be an election result on Wednesday morning, though it could take longer as election workers count absentee ballots. Experts are again urging patience in processing the results – since it may take longer for Democratic-leaning areas with large populations to report vote totals, it may appear that Republican candidates are ahead before all votes are counted.If the race is close, there will probably be an aggressive legal effort to challenge ballots in the days to come.During a rally in Riverdale, Georgia, about 20 minutes outside of Atlanta, on Monday, Warnock used the possibility of post-election litigation to motivate his supporters.“We need to win by a comfortable margin. Because, you know, funny things go on,” he said. More

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      Police to contact Republican congresswoman after vow to carry gun to US Capitol

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      Starting at a new workplace for most people may involve pondering car parking spaces or nearby lunch spots, but Lauren Boebert, a member of the US Congress, has made clear her key requirement is that she carries a loaded Glock handgun to and from the Capitol each day.Boebert, a Republican, is one of the newest House members and has released a near three-minute online video explaining why she will bring a gun through the streets of Washington to Congress.After putting the gun into her waistband and appearing to stride out on to the streets, Boebert says that “skyrocketing” crime in Washington, her small stature, and her constitutional rights justify her gun carrying. “One of the challenges of working in DC is that people here don’t understand how we live in real America,” Boebert said of a city that has been America’s capital since 1790.Washington’s police chief has said his office will contact Boebert over the video, as non-residents must register guns with the DC police. Members of Congress can carry guns on the US Capitol, which is federal land, but a permit is needed to bring one through the surrounding Washington streets.“There are no exceptions in the District of Columbia,” said the police chief, Robert Contee III, about the video. “We plan to reach out to the congresswoman’s office to make sure that she is aware what the laws of the District of Columbia are, what the restrictions are. And that congresswoman … will be subjected to the same penalties as anyone else that’s caught on a District of Columbia street carrying a firearm unlawfully.”A spokesman for Boebert said she was not carrying the gun throughout the video shoot despite the opening scene, according to the Washington Post. Democrats who have attempted to ban the carrying of guns on the US Capitol condemned Boebert’s video as an insulting stunt.A 1967 law that prohibits members of the public from carrying guns on Capitol grounds was signed by President Lyndon Johnson. Regulations created by the police board days later exempted members of Congress from the law but still prohibited them from carrying firearms in either legislative chamber. Lawmakers do not have to seek Capitol police permission, so it is unknown how many members carry firearms on the grounds, according to the Washington Post.Boebert, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal adherents, has built a political persona based largely around guns. She is the owner of a restaurant called Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle, Colorado, where staff are allowed to carry guns and are given mandatory gun training.Boebert’s initial political attacks were aimed at Beto O’Rourke when he was running for president, vowing that O’Rourke would not take her guns from her, and has since styled herself as a defender of the second amendment. More