Elections in the United States: Donald Trump supporters storm the United States Capitol

As the United States Congress prepares to affirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, thousands of Trump supporters have stormed the Capitol building where Congress meets to count Electoral College votes.

CNN reports that the police have used tear gas against the protesters, but they have still managed to break through the Capitol. Police have weapons inside the debating chamber of the US House of Representatives and lawmakers have been ordered to wear gas masks when protesters try to enter the room.

Michigan Member of Congress Dan Kildee wrote on social media: “We have been ordered to lie down on the ground and wear gas masks. Camera security and Capitol police have their guns drawn while they protesters pound on the front door of the chamber. “

“This is not a protest. This is an attack on the United States,” he said.

Lawmakers have now stopped voting to certify US President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory, and police are evacuating some congressional office buildings.

Representatives and senators have evacuated the debating chamber as protesters try to break down the door of the US House of Representatives.

Hours earlier, in a broad speech, President Donald Trump denounced the November presidential election as a fraud and vowed never to give in. The president said he was winning the race until “bull blasts ***” turned the results in Biden’s favor.

Trump urged the media to focus their cameras on the “hundreds of thousands” of supporters.

“We will never give up, we will never give in,” he said between cheers and shouts. “We will stop the robbery.

“Our country has had enough, we will not take it anymore.”

The speech prompted protesters to rush to the Capitol. DC police previously stood guard against the charging crowd, but could not hold back the tide.

Hundreds climbed and kicked the barricades aside, yelling “Go ahead!” as they ran up.

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Congress meets to affirm Biden’s victory

Meanwhile, inside the Capitol, Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Senate were admitted into the House of House to meet with the House of Representatives in a Joint Session to certify the Electoral College’s vote count.

Pence issued a statement earlier in the day, declaring that he would not intervene in the electoral count and ending the hope that Congress will overturn Biden’s victory.

Starting with the state of Alabama, tellers began announcing Electoral College voting results, but this came to a halt when Republicans opposed the recount of elections in Arizona.

The objection to Arizona’s recount forces two hours of debate in the House and Senate, sending lawmakers to separate deliberations.

Ultimately, all challenges are doomed, as both houses of Congress would have to endure any objections and Democrats control the House of Representatives.

Trump has repeatedly asked Pence to refuse to certify the vote. “All you have to do is nothing, sometimes the bravest thing you can do is nothing.

“I hope Mike does the right thing. I hope so, I hope he does, because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we will win the election,” Trump said.

“All Vice President Pence has to do is send him back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.

“If you don’t, it will be a sad day for our country.”

However, Pence has said he will refuse to do so, saying he cannot claim “unilateral authority” to reject the electoral votes that would make Biden president.

Pence’s statement said it was “my thoughtful judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution limits me to claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”

Trump later responded, denouncing his own vice president.

Georgia Senate Runoff Elections

In his speech, Trump called the Georgia runoff election, in which both Democrats are poised to defeat their Republican opponents, as a “trap.”

If the Democrats win both races, control of the Senate will shift from Republican to Democrat control.

The president said he wanted to go back eight weeks to the November vote, which was against him. He repeated his claim of “vote drops” for Biden that came overnight.

“We’re leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes, and then late in the afternoon or early morning, boom, these bull blasts ***,” he said.

Time and time again, he returned to unsubstantiated accounts of electoral fraud, claiming that “canvas bags” of fraudulent ballots had been thrown in the recount against him and votes cast in the name of deceased persons.

He also called the press “enemy of the people.” He said that many networks would turn off his speech because they did not want to convey their opinions. Fox News stayed on Trump’s speech, but split the screen with live coverage of senators entering Congress to affirm Biden. CNN coverage focused on Biden’s claim.

– AP