Congress affirms Biden’s presidential win
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress, shaken and angry following a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, put a final stamp on President-elect Joe Biden’s victory early Thursday morning and brought an end to a historically turbulent post-election period.
Republicans had at one point planned to object to the Electoral College votes in a series of states won by Biden, but after the storming of the Capitol, several GOP senators changed course, disputing only Arizona and Pennsylvania. Both challenges failed.
Shortly after Congress affirmed Biden’s win, Trump pledged an “an orderly transition.” The statement stops short of conceding or congratulating Biden.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” Trump said, noting that Congress’ action “represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history.”
In the final moments of the joint session, Senate chaplain Barry Black said a prayer lamenting “the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy,” and Vice President Mike Pence gaveled the meeting to a close, as the Democrats present gave only a half-hearted show of applause.
The lawmakers reconvenedwednesday evening, after hours of delay, in a show of defiance. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had consulted with fellow congressional leaders, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and 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 responsi
bility to validate the election of Joe Biden,” wrote Pelosi, D-calif.
As lawmakers returned to work following the riot, the tone of the debate turned more somber and impassioned than before the interruption, with a number of Republicans who had planned to slow the proceedings with objections announcing they would stand aside.
“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 as he formally reopened the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., said the rioters had tried to disrupt democracy. “They failed,” he said. Sen. Mitt Romney, RUtah, earned sustained applause from his colleagues for a thundering speech in which he said elected leaders should showrespect for voters by telling them the truth, not fueling groundless doubts about the election.
“We gather due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning,” Romney said. “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.”
At one point early Thursday morning, the raw emotions nearly sparked a physical confrontation after Rep. Conor Lamb, DPa., accused Republicans of peddling falsehoods about election fraud.
“We know that that attack today, it didn’t materialize out of nowhere,” Lamb said. “It was inspired by lies — the same lies that you’re hearing in this room tonight.”
That sparked an exchange of words between Republicans and Democrats sitting behind Lamb that nearly led to blows before aides intervened.
Both chambers picked upwednesday night where they had left off before the evacuation, considering a challenge to Biden’s 11 electoral votes in Arizona. The Senate rejected the challenge by 93-6 and the House by 303-121.
House members also ob
jected when Pence read the tallies from Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, but those challenges died when no senators joined them.
After midnight Eastern time, however, a challenge to Pennsylvania’s count, joined by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO., prompted the two chambers to consider that state’s electoral vote. The Senate did not even debate before voting 92-7 to reject the challenge, while the House debated the full two hours ahead of a 282-138 vote of rejection.
Lawmakers then moved to reconvene the joint session and complete the counting of the remaining states, setting up a final confirmation of Biden’s victory at 3:45 a.m.
Earlier in the day, the ceremonial reading of the electoral votes had just begun when pro-trump rioters rushed the building around 2 p.m., forcing the evacuation of both chambers of Congress. For hours, rioters rampaged through the Capitol complex. Onewomanwas 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.
Still, the outcome of the congressional proceedings had been clear from the start, particularly after Pence announced that 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 congressional process was supposed to be a mere procedural checkpoint on the way to Biden’s oath-taking later this month. Biden won the popular vote Nov. 3 and, last month, the Electoral College met in each state capital, as stipulated in the U.S. Constitution. Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.
All that was left before the inauguration later this month was for a joint session of Congress to gather Wednesday and read those votes aloud.
According to an 1887 law that governs the process, any member of the House of Representatives, joined by a senator, can object to an individual state’s electoral tally, prompting a two-hour debate, followed by a vote in each chamber. A majority of both the House and Senate would have had to back a challenge for any to prevail, and Trump’s supporters did not have the votes.
Dozens of Republicans in the House, joined by 13 GOP Senators, had said they intended to object to slates of electors from several swing states that had backed Biden. They cited as their reason baseless allegations of fraud fanned by Trump, and the resulting belief among many Republicans that the election was compromised. Many changed their mind after the riot, but some pressed on with their objections to state elections before Congress certified Biden’s win early Thursday.
For days leading up to Wednesday, Trump had also pressed Pence, whom the Constitution requires to preside over the ceremony, to refuse to recognize Electoral College slates from swing states that backed Biden.
Shortly before he took the gavel, however, Pence released a three-page letter he had written to members of Congress, rejecting Trump’s pleas.
“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” he wrote.
A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, said Pence’s decision caused Trumpto rage all afternoon even as the crowds were breaking into the Capitol, telling aides that Pence had betrayed him.