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Protesters supporting Donald Trump invaded the US Capitol on Wednesday and shut it down, when Vice President Mike Pence rejected the president’s demand to quash his loss to Democrat Joe Biden and the Senate Republican leader denounced an attempt in Congress. to undo the result of the elections.
Trump supporters overturned barricades and clashed with police on the grounds of the US Capitol and entered the building. Demonstrations erupted as lawmakers gathered inside to formally certify Biden’s victory over Trump in the Nov.3 election. Police authorities fought to maintain order.
The Senate and House of Representatives, which were weighing objections to Biden’s victory raised by a gang of pro-Trump Republican lawmakers, abruptly and unexpectedly withdrew.
Pence, a loyal lieutenant during the four years of Trump’s tumultuous presidency, presided over the opening of the joint session of Congress to formally certify Biden’s Nov.3 victory over Trump. A gang of Republican lawmakers quickly challenged the results, first from the state of Arizona, an electoral battleground, won by Biden.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposed the effort, saying, “If this election were annulled on mere accusations from the losing side, our democracy would spiral into death.” McConnell helped give Trump some of the greatest achievements of his presidency, including deep tax cuts and the confirmation of conservative judicial nominees.
Biden won elections 306-232 in the Electoral College state by state and by more than 7 million ballots in the national popular vote, but Trump continues to falsely claim that there was widespread fraud and that he was the winner.
The voters, the courts and the states “have all spoken,” McConnell said in the Senate. “If we invalidate them, it would damage our republic forever,” he added.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the challenges “an attempted coup” and said, “Congress does not determine the outcome of an election. The people do.”
Pence rejected Trump’s demand that the vice president unilaterally reject state electoral votes on the same day that Trump’s fellow Republicans were about to lose their majority in the Senate. The joint session of Congress could last until after midnight.
“We will never give up,” Trump previously told thousands of cheering supporters on a grassy expanse near the White House called The Ellipse. “We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. It doesn’t concede when there’s a robbery involved.”
Trump in his speech applied new pressure on Pence to try to reverse the election results. In a statement, Pence said that he shares concerns about the “integrity” of the election, but that it is not right that he can accept or reject electoral votes unilaterally.
The U.S. Constitution does not give Pence the power to unilaterally override the election results, but Trump is pressuring him to do so.
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