Congress Certifies Biden Win After Day of Turmoil
By Lindsay Wise, Andrew Duehren, Siobhan Hughes 1 hr ago
WASHINGTON—Congress formally certified President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, with lawmakers returning to finish the process hours after being rushed out as a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in a riot that resulted in one person being fatally shot by Capitol Police.
Vice President Mike Pence closed out the proceedings early Thursday morning, hours after police had hurried him out of the Senate chamber with rioters inside the Capitol. He read out the tally of the 538 votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia, cementing Mr. Biden’s win with 306 electoral votes to President Trump’s 232.
Mr. Trump issued a statement committing to an orderly transition of power to Mr. Biden on Jan. 20.
“While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!” he said in a statement released by the White House. He added that he continued to “totally disagree with the outcome of the election.”
On Wednesday, hundreds of people echoing Mr. Trump’s unproven claims that Democrats stole the 2020 election gathered ahead of a last-ditch effort from his congressional allies to contest the results in Congress. Those demonstrations turned violent, with rioters barging their way past police and into the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to shelter under desks and the evacuation of congressional leaders to nearby Fort McNair, a U.S. law-enforcement official said.
With rioters roaming freely in the Capitol, police sealed off the House and Senate chambers, using furniture to barricade the doors in the House. Several police officers drew their weapons, distributing gas masks and instructing lawmakers to stay on the floor until they could be safely evacuated.
A woman who was shot during the unrest in the Capitol died, D.C. police said.
The certification process is usually low-drama, but some Republicans had planned to object to electoral votes in several states that Mr. Trump lost in a last effort to support his protest of the election result. Before the riot, a handful of Republicans had objected to certifying Arizona’s electoral votes, but later Wednesday some dropped plans to pursue subsequent challenges.
By the end of the proceedings, both the House and the Senate had rejected challenges to results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and no senators signed on to challenges in Georgia and other states.
“When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes,” Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R., Ga.), who was to take the lead on objecting to results from Georgia, said on the Senate floor Wednesday night. “However, the events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors.”
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Thursday, January 7th 2021 at 8:40AM
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