Congress returns: Debating resumes in challenge to Biden win
WASHINGTON» Congress returned to work late Wednesday to complete the process of tallying the electoral college votes and confirming President- elect Joe Biden’s win, hours after the ceremony was halted by an unprecedented breach of the Capitol by storming supporters of President Donald Trump.
In a show of defiance and resolve, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had consulted with House leaders, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence before concluding that Congress should move ahead with the ceremony interrupted earlier in the day by rioters provoked to action by Trump at a morning rally.
“Today, a shameful assault was made on our democracy. It was anointed at the highest level of government. It cannot, however, deter us from our responsibility to validate the election of Joe Biden,”
wrote Pelosi, D- Calif.
As he reopened the Senate chamber, Pence decried “the dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”
“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. This is still the people’s house,” Pence said.
“They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed,” Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., added.
The ceremonial reading of the electoral votes had only just begun when proTrump rioters rushed the building, forcing the evacuation of both chambers of Congress. For hours, rioters rampaged through the Capitol complex. One woman was fatally shot in the building.
Only after the D.C. National Guard had been activated and political leaders in both parties condemned the rioting and appealed for calm did authorities declare the Capitol was secure.
The day had always
been expected to be a historic test of the democratic system, with dozens of Republicans attempting for the first time to use Congress’s previously ceremonial role to try to overturn the results of a popular vote. The process was already underway when Jon Ossoff was declared the winner of one of two Senate runoffs in Georgia on Tuesday, handing control of the upper chamber to the Democrats.
Still, the outcome of the congressional proceedings had been clear from the start, particularly after Pence announced he would reject pleas from the president to use his role as the session’s presiding officer to hand a win to Trump.
McConnell, who also had said little publicly about the process before Wednesday, likewise delivered a stirring opening floor speech imploring his colleagues not to damage democracy by objecting to the votes.
“Voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken - they’ve all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever,” he said.
The tense day turned to horror when pro-Trump ri
oters, stirred up at a rally where the president called for them to march on the Capitol, stormed the building, causing the proceedings to be halted for hours and the chambers to be evacuated. A woman died after being shot during the melee.
The violence shocked leaders in both parties. While lawmakers huddled in an undisclosed location during the siege, Republican leaders pressed their members to abandon their plans to challenge the electoral vote. A least one Republican House member who had planned to object later said she had changed her mind and would vote to confirm Biden’s votes.
“I encourage Donald Trump to condemn and put an end to this madness,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.
Democrats and some outside groups began calling Wednesday for Trump to be either quickly impeached by Congress or removed from office via the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which guides the handling of an incapacitated president, in an effort to lessen his ability to incite more violence.