Biden win confirmed after mob storms Capitol

WASHINGTON ( AP) — Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the presidential election winner before dawn Thursday after a violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U. S. Capitol on Wednesday in a stunning attempt to overturn the election, undercut the nation's democracy and keep Trump in the White House.

Lawmakers were resolved to complete the Electoral College tally in a display to the country, and the world, of the nation's enduring commitment to uphold the will of the voters and the peaceful transfer of power. They pushed through the night with tensions high and the nation's capital on alert.

Shortly before 4 a. m. Thursday, lawmakers finished their work, confirming Biden won the election.

Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over the joint session, announced the tally, 306-232.

Trump, who had repeatedly refused to concede the election, said in a statement immediately after the vote that there will be a smooth transition of power on

Inauguration Day.

"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 in a statement posted to Twitter by an aide.

The day after the siege at the Capitol, there were fresh questions and concerns across the government — about the president's fitness to remain in office for two more weeks, the ability of the police to secure the Capitol complex and the future

of the Republican Party in a postTrump era.

One Republican lawmaker publicly called for invoking the 25th Amendment to force Trump from office before Biden is inaugurated. Others said there must be a review of the U. S. Capitol Police's inability to prevent the breach of the complex by the protesters.

Most of the demonstrators were white. And newly elected Rep. Cori Bush, D- Mo., complained, "Had we as Black people did the same things that happened .... the reaction would have been different, we would have been laid out on the ground, there would have been, there would have been shootings, there would have been people in jail."

One protester, a white woman, was shot to death by Capitol Police, and there were dozens of arrests.

During the incursion on Wednesday, the nation's elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas masks while police futilely tried to barricade the building in one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power. Washington's mayor instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.

The rioters were egged on by Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest Congress' formal approval of Biden's victory. Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly halted by the mob.

Together, the protests and the GOP election objections amounted to an almost unthinkable challenge to American democracy and exposed the depths of the divisions that have coursed through the country during Trump's four years in office. The support Trump has received for his efforts to overturn the election results have badly strained the nation's democratic guardrails.

Congress reconvened late Wednesday, with lawmakers decrying the protests that defaced the Capitol and vowing to finish confirming the Electoral College vote for Biden's election, even if it took all night.

Pence reopened the Senate and directly addressed the demonstrators: "You did not win."

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the "failed insurrection" underscored lawmakers' duty to finish the count. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would show the world "what America is made of" with the outcome.

The president gave his supporters a boost into action Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room off the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television.