Vice President Mike Pence, who was in charge of the joint report of Congress, said Biden had won the Electoral College vote early Thursday after the House and Senate to challenge Republican protests filed against the votes cast by two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania. .
The late-night session was anything but the usual norm for counting Electoral College votes, after proceedings were adjourned for more than five hours while lawyers took the lead. lock-in by pro-Trump protesters over at the U.S. Capitol Police.
But lawmakers promised to finish what they had started, and the Senate resumed just after 8pm ET Wednesday, nearly six hours after an abrupt recess.
“For those who damaged our Capitol today, you did not win,” Pence said as the Senate session resumed after the evacuation. “As we reunite in this chamber, the world will once again see the suffering and strength of our democracy, even in the face of unprecedented violence and devastation in this Capitol.”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has pushed back against Trump’s attempt to use the joint session to reverse election decisions, said Congress “has been pushing down on much greater threats than the large population we have seen today. ”
“They tried to upset our democracy. They failed,” the Kentucky Republican
As they reunited, Democrats and some Republicans criticized Trump’s astronomy in the run-up to Wednesday’s session, saying it deserved some of the blame for inciting the masses. -prof-Trump dissent who joined the Capitol.
“This mob was a good part of what President Trump did, inspired by his words, his lies,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. today has happened without him. ”
The Senate voted 93 to 6 to dismiss the objection raised by Republicans about Arizona’s results, and 92 to 7 to reject the objection against Pennsylvania.
In the House, a majority of Republicans voted to oppose the results, but they were still strongly rejected, 303 to 121 for Arizona and 282 to 138 for Pennsylvania, with all Democrats against. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was among House Republicans who voted to reject the results of both states.
The riots prompted several Republicans in the Senate who intended to protest that they would not do so now.
“I think things have changed a lot today,” Sen said. Protesters were Mike Braun, an Indiana Republican. “Whatever point you made before that should be enough. (Let us) get this ugly day behind us.”
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican who lost her Senate race Tuesday, said she was willing to go against her state’s primary election decisions, but took a different course after the riots.
“The violence, the law, and the siege in the halls of Congress are infamous and stand as a direct attack on what my complaint was intended to defend, the sanctity of America’s democratic process,” he said. Loeffler.
Two other Republicans who intended to protest, Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and James Lankford of Oklahoma released a joint statement saying they were dismissing their grievances. “We now need the whole Congress to come together and vote to confirm the election results,” the senators said.
Not all Republicans dismissed their objections. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas stood by his pre-riot protest in Arizona, while the Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, the first Republican senator to announce plans to oppose, condemned the violence but argued that the floor of the Senate was the right place to debate the arguments surrounding the election.
It went into a complaint filed by GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, forcing the rooms to split for a second round of debate and votes.
Other Republicans who voted to oppose Arizona’s results included Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Roger Marshall of Kansas, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Cruz. Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming voted to protest against Pennsylvania, while Kennedy voted for a declaration in that state.
‘Unique attack’
Republicans and Democrats both criticized the campaigners for breaking the U.S. Capitol, with several blaming Trump – who was pushing for Republicans and Pence to use the Congress coalition to reverse the outcome of the election – to reveal the dangerous situation.
“We gather because of the pride of an injured man and the harassment of supporters who deliberately mistaken him for the past two months and urged him to action this morning,” he said. Sen. Mitt Romney, Utah Republican top candidate and 2012 GOP.
“What happened today was a revolution inspired by the president of the United States,” Romney said, warning those who voted to back Trump’s protests that it would “never be seen as a staunch attack in an unprecedented attack on democracy. “
Speaking in Delaware, Biden called on Trump to demand “an end to this siege. ”
“Our democracy is under attack like never before, unlike anything we have seen today, an attack in a fort of freedom: The Capitol itself,” he said.
Trump then urged protesters in a “go home” video while reiterating his unfounded claims about a stolen election.
“You have to go home now. We have to have peace,” Trump said. “We must have law and order.”
Before the chaos, McConnell harmed Trump
“The Constitution gives us a limited place here in Congress. We can’t just name ourselves as the national board of elections on steroids,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken. They have all spoken. If we give them over, it would harm our Republic forever.”
McConnell had opened ahead of a push from his failing Republican, with Democrats and a large number of Republicans expected to vote down all the objections.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, argued that voting to “abolish state-certified elections would run counter to the state rights that Republicans have been claiming. ”
In the brief debate at the Senate, Cruz, who came to the House Republican protest over Arizona ‘s results, marked a vote that has shown that millions of Americans believe the election was held – a vote that was motivated by Trump’s false claims about the election result.
While there is no evidence of widespread voter turnout, Trump and his campaign have been pushing baseless and false conspiracy theories that the election was opposed. The President and his friends lost dozens of lawsuits across the country both on suspicion of fraud and challenging the constitution of state electoral laws because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
All eyes on pennies
As he has lost since Nov. 3, Trump has gone after the ruling courts against him, state election officials and lawyers who did not accept his conspiracy theories or tried to overthrow the voters, a Republican Senate who opposed his demise. pushed to remove the Electoral College result and even Pence, who presided over Wednesday’s conference session before being moved.
Trump spoke to his supporters who gathered on Washington near the White House Wednesday morning, continuing to press Pence to go beyond his authority and urge his supporters to be marching on the Capitol ahead of the riots.
“I hope Mike is going to do the right thing,” Trump said at the rally on the Ellipse. “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.”
But Pence wrote in a letter to lawyers Wednesday that he did not have the “one-sided authority” to intervene.
“Our founders were very skeptical about power gatherings and created a Republic based on the separation of powers and studies and balance under the Constitution of the United States,” Pence wrote. “Watching the Vice President with unilateral authority to make primary school decisions would be completely against that design.”
The Congressional count of the election votes is usually a little more than an afterthought. Just twice since the process was set up in the 19th century, votes have been pushed on Electoral College results, and there are a number of other challenges that could be quickly overcome without any grandparents joining them.
Joint session under the guise of running Georgia
Events played Wednesday as Democrats swept Georgia Senate races, taking control of the 50-50 Senate after Biden stepped down and Vice President Kamala Harris became the breakout vote. Senate.
The question of how to handle the account had created a major split within the Republican Party. The Senate Republican fight went into the open last week after Hawley ‘s call, with Trump attacking McConnell and other Republicans who had not yet joined.
In the House, No. 3 Cheney Republicans – the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney – strongly backed down the protests, while McCarthy quietly put them back.
This story has been updated with further improvements.
CNN’s Dana Bash, Lauren Fox, Ted Barrett, Ali Zaslav, Daniella Diaz and Evan Perez contributed to this report.