Senate rejects Arizona objection after pro-Trump rioters disrupt vote certifying Biden election win
It was an eruption of anarchy aimed at the heart of American democracy.
As Congress met in joint session to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory, supporters of defeated President Donald Trump ran amok, rioted, stormed the U.S. Capitol and drove Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate floor in what many lawmakers regarded as an attempted coup, an assault on the democratic process and a national humiliation.
Even some Republicans viewed the mob violence that overwhelmed police as a stain on the Trump presidency that was fueled by the efforts of the defeated president and some of his congressional supporters to overturn Biden’s election.
By late in the evening, in the aftermath of the riot, Congress reconvened and several Republicans dropped objections they had planned to raise to Biden’s victory — including Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, who joined in a lopsided 93-6 Senate to accept Biden’s victory in Arizona, the first state that was debated.
“I mean, this is banana republic shit. That’s where we are,” said U.S Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisconsin, speaking to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter by telephone from his congressional office as demonstrators broke into the Capitol and Vice President Mike Pence was ushered from the Senate floor.
“It is beyond shocking. This is the type of stuff I saw in Iraq when I deployed,” said Gallagher, who served in the Marine Corps.
He later issued an appeal on Twitter to Trump, saying, “Mister President, you have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off … The election is over. Call it off.”
Biden himself asked Trump to “step up,” calling the riot an insurrection and a “dark moment” for the country.
“This is not dissent, it’s disorder, it’s chaos, it borders on sedition,” said the president-elect, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20. “Enough is enough.”
When Trump did speak in a video message shortly before 3:30 Central Time Wednesday afternoon (a few hours after the first security barriers were breached), he told his supporters to go home while at the same time stoking their outrage, againclaiming falsely that he was cheated out of his re-election.
“I know your pain. I know your hurt,” Trump told his supporters. “We had an election that was stolen from us … but you have to go home now. We
have to have peace. We have to have law and order … we can’t play into the hands of (the other side). We have to have peace. So, go home.”
Twitter announced Wednesday evening that it had required the removal of three of the president’s tweets posted earlier in the day, “for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” adding that as a result, Trump’s Twitter account would be locked for 12 hours after the removal of the tweets.
Curfew declared, National Guard activated
The mayor of Washington, D.C., declared a 6 p.m. curfew. One woman at the Capitol died from a gunshot wound after police fired at rioters.
The 1,100 troops of the D.C. National Guard were activated. It was the first mass breach of the U.S. Capitol since the British attack of 1814. Tear gas and percussion grenades were deployed. As of early evening, five weapons had been recovered and more than a dozen people arrested by the Capitol Police, the AP reported.
“In my experience in 50 years in law enforcement, this is unprecedented,” said John Magaw, a former Secret Service director, referring to what some termed a “colossal” security failure.
“The coordination of security has virtually fallen apart. We are watching the deterioration of law and order in the U.S. It just becomes chaos. I don’t see any sign that the current president is going to stand up and lead like presidents have led in the past.” Magaw said. “Our democracy is on the edge of a cliff.”
The shocking assault on the Capitol unfolded as Trump supporters within the Congress were attempting to reject the presidential election results in a handful of swing states, an unprecedented effort that was driving a wedge within the GOP in the final days of the Trump presidency, just as Republicans were reeling from the loss of their Senate majority after Tuesday’s two runoff elections in Georgia.
In normal times, the joint session of Congress constitutes a pro-forma tabulation of the Electoral College votes, a vital but ritual duty to affirm the election outcome that is certified by the states.
In rejecting the effort to overturn Biden’s victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said of the role of Congress not long before chaos ensued, “We cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids.”
As about a dozen Republican senators and scores of House members sought to reject the electoral votes of Arizona — the first key state that was targeted — crowds surged toward the Capitol, overwhelmed police, broke into the building and derailed the proceedings, penetrating even the House and Senate chambers.
The mob scaled walls and broke through a series of exterior barriers as they invaded the Capitol, bearing Trump banners and even Confederate flags. Rioters pounded at locked doors and eventually broke through windows. Offices were vandalized.
“Murder the media” was written on a door. C-Span showed a live feed of rioters walking freely through Statuary Hall in the Capitol.
Staff rescues Electoral College certificates
Staff members grabbed the boxes holding the Electoral College certificates that lawmakers were in the middle of counting Wednesday. Capitol Police ordered lawmakers to stand away from the doors.
“The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now,” Vice President Pence tweeted. “Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged Trump himself to convey that message.
Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah who opposed efforts to overturn the election, yelled, “This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” toward GOP colleagues after the Capitol was breached, the New York Times reported.
Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, the thirdranking Republican in the House and a vocal critic of the effort to reject Biden’s victory, said on Twitter:
“We just had a violent mob assault the Capitol in an attempt to prevent those from carrying out our Constitutional duty. There is no question that the President formed the mob, the President incited the mob, the President addressed the mob. He lit the flame.”
Trump’s former defense secretary, Jim Mattis, issued a statement assailing the president, saying, “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.’
Gallagher was the most outspoken Wisconsin Republican in Congress against the push to reject Biden’s victory. While joining others in his party in claiming election problems, he called the effort to reject the results “constitutional nihilism” and a massive overreach of congressional authority.
He said Wednesday the violence showed that the push to reject the election results had a cost.
“This is the cost of countenancing an effort by Congress to overturn the election and telling thousands of people that there is a legitimate shot of overturning the election today even though (the objectors) know that is not true,” he said.
Johnson calls breach ‘disgusting’
Johnson, who was one of roughly a dozen senators pressing objections, was in the Senate chamber as Pence and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley were spirited away from the floor as Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol.
Johnson called the breach “disgusting.”
“I want the crowd to go home,” he said in an interview. “Again, this is not what I’ve experienced with our supporters. They assemble peacefully. I condemn anything other than that.”
Asked later by WMTJ-TV’s Charles Benson if he holds the president accountable for what happened, Johnson said, “Well, he certainly could have been more helpful,” but bristled at the idea that the effort to challenge Biden’s electors contributed to the riot.
Lawmakers who were preparing to don gas masks voiced heartbreak on social media over the political and civic breakdown that occurred.
Democrats were incensed at the president, who had encouraged his supporters to protest the election outcome at the Capitol.
“I am safe, but it’s disgraceful that our country has to experience this violence because of Trump’s lies, conspiracies and un-American attacks on our Democracy,” Baldwin said.
Some call for invoking 25th Amendment
Some Democrats — including Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin — suggested invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office before Biden’s inauguration, a step that was also suggested by the National Association of Manufacturers.
“A woman is dead! The U.S. Capitol is under siege. Peaceful transfer of power has been disrupted. Trump has incited this chaos & violence. The 25th amendment must be invoked. If not, Congress must impeach & convict Trump. 13 days is far too long for Trump to remain in office,” said Moore on Twitter.
“The president has basically encouraged domestic terrorism,” Congressman Mark Pocan said. “That this is happening in our country and not in a banana republic that you watch on TV is sad.”
Amid the broad national and international chorus of dismay over events in Washington, the same “banana republic” reference appeared in a statement by former GOP President George W. Bush that was headlined, “On Insurrection at the Capitol.”
“I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election,” Bush said.
Even some pro-Trump Republicans, such as Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, criticized the president and others seeking to reject the election results, for having “fanned the flames.” Some Republican senators backed off, after the riot, from their intention to vote against Biden electors.
Republican Grothman criticizes Trump
Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman of Glenbeulah said Trump should address the nation on television.
“I think President Trump should be exerting more leadership,” he said. “I strongly believe he should get on TV and address the crowd.”
Grothman criticized Trump and others for suggesting his supporters could get Congress to change the results of the election.
Going into Wednesday, Grothman had not declared his position on counting the electoral votes. But after the riot, he said Congress should quickly wrap up the count without protracted debate, a view that Johnson echoed in an interview.
Gallagher said those who sought to reject Biden’s victory knew their effort was futile but they “convinced thousands of Americans it could succeed. The President told thousands of people in D.C. that the vice president had the power to somehow change the election result. So the people storming the Capitol are doing it not because they want to participate in some two-hour debate but because they want to overturn the results of the election. That’s the cost.”
For Tom Tiffany, no regrets
Besides Johnson, House Republican Tom Tiffany had also supported the effort to reject Biden electors. Republicans Bryan Steil and Scott Fitzgerald did not tell reporters how they planned to vote going into Wednesday.
Tiffany said he had no regrets about contesting the election results and that challenges to the election’s legitimacy are “not why we saw this protest, why some people turned violent.”
Tiffany said people should “let the dust clear and figure out who did it, and then make sure that they are brought to justice.”
The Capitol was reported secured almost four hours after the riot began.
Speaker Pelosi informed colleagues in a letter that “after calls to the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Vice President, we have decided we should proceed tonight at the Capitol once it is cleared for use ... I look forward to seeing you later this evening, during this time of great sadness.”
About 7 p.m. Central Time, the Senate resumed proceedings. The Senate eventually voted 93-6 to dismiss the objections to Biden’s victory in Arizona. Even Johnson, of Wisconsin, voted against the objection, one of several Republicans who appeared to drop their support for the objection after the invasion of the Capitol. The House was to vote later in the evening.
South Carolina Republican and big Trump supporter Lindsey Graham said, “enough’s enough ... when it’s over, it’s over ... Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and vice president of the United States on Jan. 20.”
McConnell called Wednesday’s chaos a “failed insurrection” by an “unhinged crowd” and said, “We will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation. We are back at our posts.”
Schumer said Jan. 6 would “live forever in infamy,” as a “stain on our country not so easily washed away.”