Trump concedes, condemns ‘mayhem’
PresidentDonald WASHINGTON—
Trump surrendered his effffffffffffort to hang onto power Thursday after Congress formally accepted the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, but the nation’s government remained in disarray following a breach of the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters that struck at the heart of American democracy.
In a video message posted to TwitterThursday evening, Trump said that now that Congress has certified the results, the “new administration will be inaugurated on January 20” and his “focus now turns to ensuring a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power.”
“Thismoment calls for healing and reconciliation,” Trump said.
He also spoke out against the violence, calling it a “heinous attack” that left him “outraged by the violence lawlessness and mayhem.”
Trump also said he fought the election results because “his only goal was to “ensure the integrity of the vote” and he said that U.S. election laws need reform, especially in the area of voter identifification.
A Kenyan watches a news report on Kenyan TV, Thursday, showing Britain’s PrimeMinister Boris Johnson’s Twitter comment among world leaders’ reaction to the U.S. Capitol demonstrations onWednesday inWashington.
Going forwardinthewake of a rough 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, TrumpsaidtheUnited States needs to place a “renewed emphasis on the civic values of patriotism, faith, charity, community and family.”
The angry aftermath of the invasion of the Capitol had Democrats and even some Republicans talking about whether Trump should not be allowed to fifinish his term but rather removed under the disability clause of the 25thAmendment or through a second impeachment.
“Thispresident shouldnot hold offiffice one day longer,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whowill becomethe majorityleader withthe seating of two new Democratic senators elected in Georgia this week. “The quickest and most effffffffffffective way — it can be done today — to remove this president from offiffice would be for the vice president to immediately invoke the25thAmendment. If the vice president and the Cabinet refuse to stand up,
Congress should reconvene to impeach the president.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed Schumer’s sentiments.
“While it’s only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America,” Pelosi said, calling Trump’s actionsWednesday a “seditious act.”
Pelosi singled out members of theCabinetbyname, asking why they would not intervene.
“Are they ready to say for the next 13 days this dangerousman can assault our democracy?” Pelosi said of the Cabinet.
The likelihood of either happening seemed remote, but some Republicans joined in the call. “All indications are that the presidenthas becomeunmoored — not just fromhis duty nor even his oath, but fromreality itself,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who has been a critic of the president. “It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment and to end this nightmare.”
MickMulvaney, a former White House chief of staffff who had been serving as a special envoy for Trump until he resigned following the mob attack, said the discussion was understandable given the president’s behavior.
“It does not surpriseme at all that the 25th Amendment is being discussed,” he told CNBC. Mulvaney said the president had become increasingly erratic. “Clearly he is not the same as he was eightmonths ago, and certainly the people advising him are not the same as theywere eightmonths ago, and that leads to a dangerous sort of combination, as you saw yesterday.”
In addition to Mulvaney, more advisers to the president andadministrationoffifficials quit in protest, bringing the eleventh-hour resignations to more than a half-dozen, includingTransportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate MajorityLeaderMitchMcConnell.
FormerAttorney General WilliamBarr, onceoneof the president’smost important defenders until resigning himself lastmonth, said in a statement toTheAssociated Press that the president’s actions were a “betrayal of his offiffice and supporters” and that “orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable.”
Even as the wreckage of the attack was being swept away in the Capitol, questions were being asked about how security for the building could be overwhelmed by the protesters given that itwas well known that Trump’s supporters planned to rally in Washington on the day of the Electoral College count. Four people died, including a woman who was shot by security inside the Capitol and three others who suffered medical conditions.
Defying the pressure, Congress proceeded to validate Biden’s victory in a nearly all-night session, voting down Trump’s allies who objected to electors from two key states. Six Republicans in the Senate and 121 in the House voted to block electors from Arizona, while seven senators and 138 House members voted against electors from Pennsylvania.
It was then left to Vice President Mike Pence, who had rebuffffffffffffed Trump’s demand that he assert the power to unilaterally block confifirmation of the election result as the president of the Senate and presiding offifficer of the count, to formally announce the results.
“The announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States, each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January 2021, and shall be entered together with a list of the votes on the journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives,” Pence said at 3: 41 a.m.
With that dry ritualistic languagemandated by parliamentarians, Pence offifficially fifinalized the defeat of his own ticket and Biden’s coming ascensionto theOval Offiffice.