The Senate has overwhelmingly overflowed with a challenge to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona, ensuring that the outcome will be maintained.
The objection to the results in Arizona – led by Rep. Paul Gosar and Sen. Ted Cruz – was rejected 93-6 on Wednesday night. All votes in favor came from Republicans, but after violent protesters stormed the Capitol earlier Wednesday, several Republican senators who had planned to support the objection reversed course.
Republicans raised the objection based on false claims pushed by President Donald Trump and others of issues with the vote in Arizona, which were repeatedly dismissed in Arizona courts and by state election officials.
Republicans were among Congress leaders, including Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and James Imhoff, who took the podium in the Senate chamber and denied the violence that took place earlier in the day at the Capitol.
Several Republican senators have reversed course and now say they will not oppose Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Steve Daines of Montana, Mike Braun of Indiana and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia said in light of the violence that they would withdraw from objections to Biden’s victory.
Loeffler said the “violence, illegality and siege in Congress halls” were a “direct attack” on the “sanctity of the American democratic process.”
All three had previously signed Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud to explain his defeat. Loeffler has a few days left to finish his term. He lost his Senate career to Democrat Raphael Warnock earlier Wednesday.
Officials declared the U.S. Capitol complex “safe.”
At least one woman was shot dead, though it is unclear who pulled the trigger during the chaotic scene.
A violent crowd loyal to President Donald Trump on Wednesday stormed the U.S. Capitol and forced lawmakers to hide, in an impressive attempt to overthrow the U.S. presidential election, undermine the nation’s democracy and prevent the Democrat. Joe Biden replaced Trump in the White House.
The National Guard and state and federal police were asked to check in and the mayor of Washington imposed a rare evening curfew.
Elected representatives of the nation hurried to crouch under the counters and put gas marks, while police tried in vain to barricade the building, one of the most discordant scenes that ever took place in a headquarters. of American political power.
SEE: full coverage of the chaos at the Capitol
Trump incited riot police, who have spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to come down to Washington to protest formal congressional approval of Biden’s victory. Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of objecting to the results on their behalf when the crowd abruptly stopped proceedings.
Several sources told ABC News that there have been discussions between some members of Trump’s cabinet and some of his allies about the 25th Amendment, which may be used by cabinet members to remove President Trump from office.
It was unclear to what extent these talks have been extensive, nor whether Vice President Pence supports that action, ABC News reported.
Aside from a couple of tweets and that one-minute video, Trump largely disassociated himself from the occupation of a nationwide government headquarters.
MORE: Twitter closes Trump’s account after removing tweets about DC protesters
Together, Republican Party protests and election objections posed an almost unthinkable challenge to American democracy and exposed the depths of the divisions that have swept the country during Trump’s four-year term. While efforts to prevent Biden’s swearing-in on January 20 have surely failed, the support Trump has received for his efforts to overturn election results has severely strained the nation’s democratic railings.
Congress reconvened hours later, promising to finish confirming the Electoral College’s vote for Biden’s election, even if it took all night.
Vice President Mike Pence, who reopened the session, addressed the protesters directly: “You didn’t win.”
SEE: Vice President Pence addresses Congress when Electoral College certification resumes
The president gave a boost to his followers in action Wednesday morning at a rally in front of the White House, where he urged them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in the Oval Office’s private dining room watching scenes of the violence on television. At the urging of his staff, he reluctantly issued a couple of tweets and a recorded video telling his followers it was time to “return home in peace,” though he said he defended his cause.
A somber president-elect, Biden, two weeks after he was inaugurated, said American democracy was “under unprecedented assault,” a sentiment echoed by many in Congress, including some Republicans. Former President George W. Bush said he viewed the events with “disbelief and dismay.”
SEE: Joe Biden calls on Capitol crowd to “retire” urges restoration of decency
The domed Capitol building has been the scene of occasional protests and violence for centuries. But Wednesday’s events were particularly striking 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 fair presidential election.
Tensions were already rising when lawmakers met Wednesday afternoon for the mandatory constitutional counting of Electoral College results, in which Biden defeated Trump, 306-232. Despite requests from Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, more than 150 Republican lawmakers planned to support some objections to some of the results, even though they had no evidence of election fraud or mistreatment.
SEE: Mitch McConnell breaks with Trump in a mocking speech
Trump took the first steps in the procedure to make public Pence, who played a mostly ceremonial role in the trials, to help the effort. He tweeted Wednesday, “Do it Mike, this is a moment of extreme courage!”
But Pence, in a statement shortly before presiding, challenged Trump, saying he could not claim “unilateral authority” to reject the election votes that make Biden president.
Shortly after the Republican Party’s first objections, protesters fought in front of police and broke into the building, shouting and waving American and Trump flags as they marched down the aisles. Lawmakers were told to drown under the seats to cover them and put on gas masks after tear gas was used at the Capitol Roundabout. Some lawmakers in the house tweeted that they were in place at their offices.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-California, told reporters he was in the House of Representatives when riots began assaulting it. The security guards “made us all go down, it was seen that they were defending some kind of aggression, it seemed. dir Peters.
“And they just told us to take the pins off,” he added, referring to members wearing lapel pins so Capitol police can identify them quickly. Then lawmakers were evacuated.
Staff members grabbed the ballot boxes from the Electoral College when the evacuation took place. Otherwise, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore, said the ballots would probably have been destroyed by the protesters.
RELATED: Electoral University Ballots Rescued as Protesters Assault US Capitol, Senator Says
Elected Vice President Kamala Harris, who attended the session, was one of the people who initiated security.
As soon as they left, the protesters roamed the halls shouting, “Where are they?” One rose to the podium in the Senate and shouted, “Trump won this election.”
More than a dozen people were arrested.
SEE ALSO: US lawmakers react to DC protest closing Capitol
Trump supporters who post on popular Internet forums with far-right marginal elements celebrated the chaos. Messages posted in one went from profane frustration at the content of Trump’s speech to joy when supporters stormed the building. At least one prominent figure was a live video from inside the Capitol during the siege.
The Mafia attack on Congress sparked bipartisan outrage, mostly from Democrats but also Republicans, as lawmakers accused Trump of fomenting violence with his relentless falsehoods about election fraud. Several suggested Trump be prosecuted for a crime, which seems unlikely two weeks after his term expires.
“I think Donald Trump should probably be betrayed for something like that,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-California, told reporters. “That’s how a coup begins. And that’s how democracy dies.”
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Who sometimes clashed with Trump, issued a written statement saying, “Lies have consequences. This violence was the inevitable and ugly result of the president’s addiction to food. constantly the division “.
Despite Trump’s repeated allegations of voter fraud, election officials and his own attorney general have said there were no problems on a scale that would change the outcome. All states have certified their results as fair and accurate, for both Republican and Democratic officials.
The Pentagon said about 1,100 members of the District of Columbia National Guard mobilized to help support law enforcement at the Capitol. More than a dozen people were arrested.
As darkness began to set in, police officers made their way to the protesters, using percussion grenades to try to clear the area around the Capitol. Large clouds of tear gas were seen. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
Pence was closely watched as he entered the podium to preside over the first joint session in the House of Commons.
Pence played a mostly ceremonial role, opening the sealed envelopes of the states after taking them to mahogany boxes that were used for the occasion and reading the results aloud. But he was under growing pressure from Trump to nullify the will of voters and tip the results in favor of the president, despite having no legal power to affect the outcome.
“Do it Mike, it’s a moment of extreme courage!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
MORE: Rioter walks into Nancy Pelosi’s office, takes pictures with her feet on the desk
But Pence, in a statement shortly before presiding, challenged Trump, saying he could not claim “unilateral authority” to reject the election votes that make Biden president.
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