‘A shameful assault on our democracy’

Mob delays electoral vote count

WASHINGTON — A mob of loyalists, urged on by President Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, halting for hours Congress’ counting of the electoral votes to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and prompting police to evacuate lawmakers in a scene of violence and chaos that shook the core of American democracy.

There was no parallel in modern U.S. history, with insurgents acting in the president’s name vandalizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, smashing windows, looting art and briefly taking control of the Senate chamber, where they took turns posing for photographs with fists up on the rostrum where Vice President Mike Pence had just presided. Outside the building, they erected a gallows, punctured the tires of a police SUV and left a note on its windshield saying, “PELOSI IS SATAN.”

“This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-utah, and the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, yelled as the Senate was first thrust into a lockdown, apparently addressing his Republican colleagues who were leading the charge to press Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

“This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection,” Romney seethed later.

The upheaval unfolded on a day when Democrats secured a stunning pair of victories in runoff elections in Georgia, winning effective control of the Senate and the com

plete levers of power in Washington, and as Congress was meeting in what would normally have been a perfunctory and ceremonial session to declare Biden’s election. But in a move that drove a painful wedge among Republicans, a faction in their ranks — egged on by the president — was set to contest the outcome and trumpet his false claims of voting fraud, giving voice inside the Capitol to those who ultimately forced their way in,

stopping the process in its tracks.

By nightfall, lawmakers had reconvened to count the votes and confirm Biden’s win, but only after lawmakers and Pence had been evacuated in shocking scenes and took shelter near the Capitol, amid violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Capitol Police, reinforced by the FBI and

JASON ANDREW / THE NEW YORK TIMES Protesters, urged on by President Donald Trump earlier in the day, march Wednesday on the U.S. Capitol. The Capitol building was placed on lockdown, with Senators and members of the House rushed from their chambers after hundreds of Trump’s supporters — angered by Congress’ move to certify Joe Biden’s election victory — forced their way into the Capitol to interrupt the process.

SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ AP U.S. Capitol Police with guns drawn watch as protesters try to break into the House Chamber.