Congress’ Electoral College vote count disrupted by mob
The tally of the Electoral College votes by Congress — already being challenged by Republican allies of President Trump — was suspended entirely for several hours as pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol building.
The House and Senate were meeting in a joint session Wednesday to count the Electoral College votes that would cement President-elect Joe Biden’s 306232 victory when protesters breached the Capitol, plunging the proceedings into chaos and sending lawmakers scurrying for shelter.
When they reconvened well after dark, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle moved swiftly to condemn the violence and restore order to proceedings that are typically little more than a ceremonial exercise.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the swarming of the Capitol a “failed insurrection.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was a day that will “live forever in infamy.”
Vice President Mike Pence, the Senate’s presiding officer, said, “To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win.”
Multiple GOP senators who had planned to object to Biden’s win reversed course after the day’s violence, including Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who lost her Senate race on Wednesday.
U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, a longtime Trump ally, called it a “uniquely bad idea to delay this election” adding, “count me out.”
U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney said those who rejected the results “will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy.”
The tumultuous day began before Congress convened at 1 p.m., when Trump told supporters in a rally near the White House that he would “never concede” the election and continued to put pressure on Pence to intervene on his behalf.
“If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election,” Trump said.
Pence rebuffed Trump’s pleas, writing in a letter that, “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
In response, Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
The first objection to the Electoral College vote came mere minutes into the joint session, with a group of Republicans, led by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, challenging the results from Arizona and forcing both chambers into debates that were soon disrupted by the rioters.
At the time, McConnell harshly condemned the efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election, saying they could send “our democracy into a death spiral.”
The Senate later rejected the Arizona challenge. The House was still voting at press time.