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US Capitol in lockdown as Trump supporters clash with police
The presidential handover collapsed into chaos on Wednesday as an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol.
In unprecedented scenes the building was locked down with lawmakers inside as Donald Trump supporters clashed with police, broke through barricades and entered the building.
As a mob of Trump supporters entered the building, people working inside were ordered by local safety officials to shelter in their offices. Shots were fired, according to ABC News, and a woman was shot although the details were not immediately clear. The National Guard was called to help to secure the Capitol.
After breaching barricades Trump supporters were seen walking through the building, waving flags and clashing violently with security. One posted pictures purportedly from House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office where her quickly abandoned laptop appeared to be still on, others took selfies inside the Senate chamber.Members of Congress were told to don gas masks after teargas was deployed inside the building. Outside the building hundreds of supporters barged through police lines and took over the steps of the Capitol. Video showed injured police officers and violent tussles as they stormed the building.
The move meant that the Senate and the House of Representatives both recessed its debate over congressional certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump in November’s presidential election.
Local media reported that Mike Pence was ushered out of the Senate and taken to a secure location. The Senate doors were closed and locked, and senators told to stay away from the doors and then evacuated.
Trump, and his allies, have baselessly floated conspiracy theories that the election was somehow fraudulently won by the Biden, though there is no evidence to support this. At a rally before the riot began Trump falsely told supporters once more that the election had been rigged, referring to the counting of ballots in the 2020 election as “explosions of bullshit”.
“We will never give up, we will never concede. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved,” Trump said.
Earlier Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, had called for a “trial by combat” accusing Democrats of hiding evidence of malfeasance. “Who hides evidence? Criminals hide evidence. Not honest people,” he told the crowd.
After Trump’s speech protestors marched towards the Capitol chanting: “Whose Capitol? Our Capitol.”
The mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, ordered a curfew in America’s capital city that was set to begin at 6pm local time.
The process that the protests halted was the certification of the electoral college vote which is typically a ceremonial – and largely perfunctory – affair. However, a group of Republican lawmakers – spurred on by Trump – are trying to turn the usually routine debate into Trump’s last stand and a bid to reverse his election defeat.
President-elect Joe Biden denounced the violence at the Capitol. “At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times,” he said.
Trump, who still has not conceded that he lost the election, has spent the last several weeks attempting to pressure public officials to overturn Biden’s 306-232 election win.
As the situation worsened Republicans and Democrats called on Trump to tell his supporters to go home. “The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now,” Pence wrote on Twitter.Mike Pence
(@Mike_Pence)
The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now. Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.January 6, 2021
Trump tweeted: “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”
Ten minutes earlier he had attacked the vice-president for not having “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,” and backing his attempt to usurp the election results.Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump)
pic.twitter.com/Pm2PKV0Fp3January 6, 2021
In a video Trump called on his supporters to go home but falsely claimed once more that the election had been “stolen”. “I know your pain, I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us,” he said. “But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. Go home. We love you. You are very special.” More
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'I’ll be for you': Jon Ossoff thanks Georgia as election draws to close – video
The Democratic candidate has given a speech thanking the people of Georgia for electing him to the US Senate before the final tally is formally announced.
In his speech, Jon Ossoff asked the country to unite to beat the coronavirus pandemic and said he would fight both for people who voted for him and those who did not in the second of two runoff elections in Georgia
US Georgia senate election: latest updates More - in US Politics
Congress is facing an election reckoning. Democracy hangs in the balance | Lloyd Green
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 - in US Politics
Who are the key players in the US presidential election certification?
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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What's expected to happen when Congress meets to certify the 2020 election result?
A joint session of Congress is scheduled to begin meeting on Wednesday at 1pm to finally certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.Never in the modern political history of the United States have these proceedings been notable. For 150 years, Congress has acted in accordance with the constitution and the 1887 Electoral Count Act to simply receive election results from the states and announce them to the nation. It usually takes a couple hours on a weekday, and does not make many headlines.This year will be different. Goaded by Donald Trump, a dozen Republican senators have announced they will join with conspiracy-minded members of the House of Representatives to advance unfounded challenges to the states’ election results. These challenges will proceed in spite of an utter lack of evidence of any significant voting irregularities, dozens of foregoing contrary court decisions and an unbroken chain of miserably weak and corrupt challenges at state and local levels.The process of congressional certification of the presidential election result this year will be different for two main reasons. One, Trump has demanded that his election loss at the hands of more than 81m Americans be overturned. And two, key Republicans players in Congress have decided to support Trump’s effort to advance their own political ambitions.The events of the day leave plenty of room for unexpected twists. But here is a short guide to how the proceedings are expected to unfold.Delivery of electoral votesEvery state certified its election results before a 14 December deadline. The states submitted results to the national archivist. On Wednesday, copies of the certifications will be delivered to Congress in ceremonial boxes, in a scene recalling the ceremonial delivery one year ago of the articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate.Roll call of statesThe presiding officer for the proceedings is the vice-president, Mike Pence, in his role as president of the senate. If the vice-president is unavailable, the longest-serving senator would fill in. The presiding officer announces each state in alphabetical order. Each state’s result is announced in turn. The tally for each presidential candidate accrues as the votes are announced. Biden won the election 306-232. That is expected to be the basic final tally. But stray single votes for non-candidates, in symbolic protest of the election, often appear.ObjectionsHere is where the process is likely to give way to unusual detours. Republicans have announced they will object to certain states’ results. Any objection to a state’s result must be submitted in writing. If at least one member of both the Senate and the House of Representatives signs any objection, the joint session is suspended and the houses retire to their respective chambers for up to two hours’ debate on the objection.Serial debateIt’s not clear how many state results may become subject to Republican objections. No substantive claims of voter fraud have surfaced in any state. But Republicans are acutely aware of which state results sealed Trump’s loss, and as many as six of those states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) could become the focus for objections. What is clear is that after each objection, a new debate must commence, meaning the overall process of certification could be prolonged.Dismissing objectionsAt the end of debate over an objection to a state result, each chamber of Congress votes on the objection. If both chambers vote in favor of an objection, it is sustained and the slate of electors in question is tossed. However, if either chamber votes against any objection, the objection is tossed.The House of Representatives is extremely likely to dismiss any objection to the results in any state because the chamber is controlled by Democrats, who have not trafficked in election fraud conspiracies and lies, and who would prefer to see the rightful winner of the election, Joe Biden, installed as president.But the Senate is also unlikely to toss any state’s election result, because there (appear to) remain a sufficient number of Republican members of that body unwilling to sell out democracy to Trump to vote down any objection from the ambitious few.Thus, no state result is likely to be tossed.Mike Pence’s roleAt the end of the proceedings, it is prescribed that the president of the senate, the vice-president of the United States, in this case Pence, announces the state of the vote. Joe Biden filled this role in 2016. It’s a ceremonial role employing ceremonial language.But Trump and others have urged Pence to seek a greater role in the proceedings – to advance certain objections, perhaps, or to resist the certification of the vote.Under the law, it does not matter what Trump thinks Pence’s role ought to be. The role is clearly prescribed in the constitution and in election law.ConclusionThe presiding officer recognizes a so-called “teller” from Congress, who reports a count “as the result of the ascertainment and the counting of the electoral vote for president and vice-president of the United States”.Then the presiding officer says: “The state of the vote for the president of the United States as delivered to the president of the Senate is as follows.” And he announces the tally.More ceremonial language follows:“This announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice-president of the United States…“The purpose of this joint session having been concluded … the chair declares the joint session dissolved.” More
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Republicans face test of loyalty to Trump as Congress meets to certify election
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
