The United States (US) Congress was in session today to count and certify the Electoral College votes for president and vice president. Despite numerous state-wide recounts confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Republicans have sought to challenge the count, and delay the inevitable certification of Biden’s win.
GOP senators Paul Gosar and Ted Cruz led the charge for the objection on Wednesday morning, labelling the election fraudulent, and called for a 10-day emergency audit of the November vote in some disputed states by a congressional panel before signing off on certification. However, any attempts to block Biden’s victory are almost certain to fail. While Democratic senators unsurprisingly pushed back against GOP arguments, other Republican leaders chimed in as well.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been an ardent ally of President Donald Trump, dismissed his party members’ efforts to change the Electoral College results, arguing that it would be “unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the courts and the states on this extraordinarily thin basis.” He added, “I will vote to respect the people’s decision and defend our system of government as we know it.”
While deliberations went on inside the US Capitol in Washington DC, thousands of MAGA supporters marched to the building as part of a “Save America Rally” to oppose the certification. President Donald Trump addressed the crowds and urged them to continue their protests, saying: “We will never give up. We will never concede.” Trump has also pressured Vice President Mike Pence in recent weeks to block the process, however, Pence reportedly informed the president that he did not have the power to do so. Trump made his displeasure at Pence’s silence on Wednesday clear, in a (now deleted) tweet:
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021
The rally turned into complete chaos a few hours later as protesters clashed with Capitol police and breached the building. The House immediately went into recess, the floor was evacuated, and the police made requests for more law enforcement, including federal authorities. An emergency alert was issued immediately, stating: “Due to an INTERNAL threat in the building, take shelter in the nearest office and stay quiet.” Security was increased at the White House as well.
Though Donald Trump reacted to the breach with requests to protesters to stay peaceful, many blamed him for inciting the violence that ensued. “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we’re probably not going to be cheering, so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong,” Trump had told his supporters earlier in the day.
Charles Ramsey, the former chief of the DC Metropolitan Police told CNN: “What I would want the President to do is shut the hell up and get out of the way. I mean, the guy is — he’s like a cancer, you know. He stirred them up and got the whole thing going. This is as close to a coup attempt as this country has ever seen. That's what you're looking at, folks, that's what you're looking at and it's absolutely ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, and a lot of people are responsible for this.”
Meanwhile, Georgia’s runoff election saw the Democrats retake the US Senate after six years, with Rev. Raphael Warnock becoming the projected winner against GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler for one seat. Warnock is making history as the state’s first Black senator. On the other hand, Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent GOP Senator David Perdue in the other race.