Congress has certified President-elect, Joseph R. Biden, victory early Thursday morning, hours after Donald Trump’s loyalists stormed the US Capitol, disrupting the final electoral count of the votes.
The Senate reconvened late on Wednesday evening, hours after lawmakers had been evacuated from the Capitol stormed by rebels carrying pro-Trump paraphernalia. However, both Republicans and Democrats condemned the violence and expressed their determination to carry out what they called a constitutionally sacrosanct function.
“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people’s house,” Mr. Pence
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said the “failed insurrection” had only clarified Congress’s purpose.
“They tried to disrupt our democracy, but they failed.”
The ugly incident took place the day Democrats secured a stunning pair of victories in runoff elections in Georgia, winning effective control of the Senate and the complete levers of power in Washington. And it arrived as Congress met for what would normally have been a perfunctory and ceremonial session to declare Mr. Biden’s 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,” Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah and the 2012 presidential nominee, said after the chamber reconvened. “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.”