Congress convenes, then flees
Push to challenge electors disrupted after 1st objection
WASHINGTON — Even before violent demonstrators forcedlawmakers out of theU.S. Capitol, Wednesday was unfolding as one of the most extraordinary days in the nation’s seat of government.
Republican lawmakers mounted their first official challenge to Joe Biden’s presidential election win, objecting to state results fromArizonaas they tookup President Donald Trump’s relentless effort to overturn the election outcome in an unusual joint session of Congress.
Outside, demonstrators tried to shove theirway into the Capitol, scuffling with police, after a fiery rally near the White House in which Trump prodded his supporters tomarchtoCapitol Hill.
Thelast-gaspeffortwas all but certain to fail, defeated by bipartisan majorities in Congress preparedto accept the November results. Biden, who won the Electoral College 306-232, is to be inaugurated Jan. 20.
Still, Trump vowed to he would “never concede” and urged the massive crowd outside the WhiteHouse to march to the Capitol where hundreds had already gathered under tight security.
“We will never give up,” Trump told the noontime rally.
Trump had been subjecting Vice President Mike Pence, who has a largely ceremonial role, opening the sealed envelopes from the states, to overturn the will of the voters and tip the results in the president’s favor, despite having no legal power toaffect theoutcome.
But Pence, in a statement shortly before presiding, defied Trump, saying he could not claim “unilateral authority” toreject the electoral votes that make Biden president
DespiteTrump’s repeated claims of voter fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general have said there were no problems on a scale that would change the outcome. All the states have certified their results as fair and accurate, byRepublicanand Democratic officials alike.
Inside the House chamber, Arizonawas the first of several states facing objections from the Republicans as Congress took an alphabetical reading of the election results.
Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, flankedby Sen. Ted CruzofTexas, rose to object to the typically routine acceptance of electors.
The objection sent lawmakers away to separate deliberations and was supposedto forcetwohours of debate in the House and Senate.
During the Senate session, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged fellowRepublicans to abandon their effort to overrule Biden’s election triumph, directly rebuking Trump and asserting that the GOP drive threatened the country’s democratic foundations.
“The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken,” said McConnell, R-Ky., as theSenate debated a challenge by a handful of GOP lawmakers to the 11 electoral votes that Arizona cast for Biden. “They’ve all spoken. Ifweoverrule them, itwould damage our republic forever.”
Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, andeight lawsuits challenging the results have failed. The state’s Supreme Court onWednesday upheld the dismissal ofanelection challenge.
McConnell minced no words as he spoke on the Senate floor against Trump’ s futile bid to reverse his reelection loss.
“If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracywould enter a death spiral,” McConnell said. “We would never see the whole nations accept an election again. Every four years would be a scramble for power at any cost.”
After four years in which Trump has frequently resorted to falsehoods, McConnell said, “We cannot keep drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate setof factsandseparate realities.” He said the country risked taking “a poisonous path where only the winner of an election actually accept the results.”
The joint session of Congress, required by law, convened before a watchful, restless nation— months after the election, twoweeks before the inauguration’s traditional peaceful transfer of power and against the backdrop of a surging COVID-19 pandemic.
Any pretense of an entirely peaceful transfer was shattered when the Senate and House were forced to suspend their session after chanting protesters gained entry to the Capitol, prompting police to lock down the building. Thousands of pro-Trump protesters rallied in the nation’s capital, answering appeals by Trump himself, who addressed supporters gathered outside the White House.
“All of us here today do notwant to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical Democrats,” Trump told the crowd on the Ellipse just south of the White House. “We will never give up. We will never concede. ... You don’t concede when there’ s death involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.”
Many attendees followed his directive tomarchupthe National Mall toward the Capitol in order to “give our Republicans,” Trump said, “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”