Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory early Thursday, overwhelmingly repudiating a drive by President Donald Trump to overturn his defeat after it culminated in a mob of loyalists storming and occupying the Capitol in a shocking display of violence that shook the core of American democracy.
There was no parallel in modern American history, as insurgents acting with the president’s encouragement vandalized Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, smashing windows, looting art and briefly taking control of the Senate chamber, where they took turns posing for photographs with fists up on the dais where Vice President Mike Pence had just been presiding. Outside the building, they erected a gallows, punctured the tires of a police SUV and left a note on its windshield saying, “PELOSI IS SATAN.”
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The attack by rebels carrying pro-Trump paraphernalia stopped the electoral counting for several hours and sent lawmakers and Pence fleeing. But by the time the Senate reconvened in a reclaimed Capitol, one of the nation’s most polarizing moments had yielded an unexpected moment of solidarity that briefly eclipsed partisan division. Republicans and Democrats locked arms to denounce the violence and express their determination to carry out what they called a constitutionally sacrosanct function, refusing by resounding bipartisan majorities to deliver Trump the election reversal he demanded.
Pence, breaking with the president he has loyally served, made Biden’s victory official just after 3:40 a.m. in Washington, declaring that Biden had received 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 and would be inaugurated the 46th president on Jan. 20.
“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win,” Pence said earlier. “Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people’s house.” Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the majority leader, said the “failed insurrection” had only clarified Congress’ purpose. “They tried to disrupt our democracy,” he said. “They failed.”
In a statement just before 4 am Thursday (local time), the president finally conceded, saying, “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”
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Still, the process opened bitter wounds within the Republican Party that are unlikely to quickly heal. While some Republicans who had planned to join the effort to overturn Biden’s victory agreed to drop their challenges after the Capitol siege, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri pressed forward, keeping both chambers in session well past midnight.
An objection to Arizona’s results lodged by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama just before the violence broke out in the Capitol failed overwhelmingly in the Senate, 6-93. The House turned it back on a vote of 121-303, but more than half of that chamber’s Republicans supported the effort to overturn the election results.
A challenge to Pennsylvania’s results backed by Hawley ended in lopsided defeats, as well. Skipping debate altogether, senators voted to reject it 7-92. The House moved more slowly but eventually voted 138-282 to do the same.
The upheaval unfolded on a day when 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 Biden’s election.
From the start, Trump’s allies, acting at his behest, had been determined to use the session to formally contest the outcome. Driving a painful wedge among Republicans, they trumpeted his false claims of voting fraud and initially gave voice inside the Capitol to those who ultimately forced their way in, stopping the process in its tracks.
Lawmakers and Pence mostly took shelter together near the Capitol, amid violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement, but small groups reported being stranded for a time in offices and hideaways throughout the building.
Capitol Police, reinforced by the FBI and National Guard in tactical gear, successfully retook the Capitol complex just before 6 p.m., after more than three hours of mayhem. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington had declared a citywide curfew from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, and a public emergency lasting until after Biden’s inauguration.
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The siege was the climax of a weekslong campaign by Trump, filled with baseless claims of fraud and outright lies, to try to overturn a democratically decided election that he lost. He fought the result in court with dozens of spurious lawsuits that he lost. He outright pressured Republican leaders in key battleground states to reverse the will of the voters. And he fought, at last, to turn the congressional counting into the site of his final stand.
“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,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-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.”
Far from discouraging confrontation, Trump had encouraged his supporters earlier Wednesday to confront Republican lawmakers going against him to side with the Constitution.
“We will never concede,” he told a group of thousands gathered near the White House, inveighing against members of his own party preparing to finalize his loss as “weak Republicans, pathetic Republicans” whose leadership had gone “down the tubes.” He then repeatedly told them to march to the Capitol, where the vote tallying was about to get underway. The violence began a little more than two hours later.
In a speech just before the violence broke out, McConnell, the most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill, forcefully rebuked Trump and members of his own party, warning that the drive to overturn a legitimate election risked sending democracy into “a death spiral.”
“The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken,” said McConnell, the majority leader. “If we overrule them all, it would damage our republic forever.”
Yet even as he spoke, it was becoming clear that the vicious cycle had already been unleashed. Within an hour, McConnell was in the grip of his Capitol Police detail and being rushed out of his chamber with other senators as members of his own party chanted curses to his name.
Biden, in his own remarks, demanded that Trump intervene to tamp down an “unprecedented assault” on democracy. He called for a televised address by Trump to “fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”
“This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end now,” Biden said. “I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.”
Trump initially stayed quiet as the mob rampaged through the Capitol. When he did make himself heard, it was to call for support for law enforcement in a tweet that concluded, “Stay peaceful!” But not long after, he released a brief video repeating his disproved claim that “the election was stolen” and speaking in sympathetic and affectionate terms to members of the mob. Later, he absolved the mobsters of their gross assault, effectively arguing that their actions had been warranted.
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“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump wrote Wednesday evening in a tweet, which Twitter later removed. “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!
The president had also intensely pressured Pence, who as vice president oversees the counting, to go rogue and unilaterally throw out the votes of key battleground states Trump lost. Shortly before the session began, Pence denied him in a bold statement after four years of loyal alliance.
“I do not believe that the founders of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the joint session of Congress, and no vice president in American history has ever asserted such authority,” he wrote.
Once the counting got underway, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona quickly lodged the first such objection to Gosar’s home state, sending senators and House members to their respective chambers for up to two hours of debate on Trump’s baseless fraud claims.
About 2:15 p.m., as the House and Senate separately debated the objection, security rushed Pence out of the Senate chamber, and the Capitol building was placed on lockdown after the demonstrators surged past barricades and law enforcement toward the legislative chambers.
“We now have individuals that have breached the Capitol building,” an officer told the House.
In a scene of unrest common in other countries but seldom witnessed in the history of the U.S. capital, hundreds of people in the mob barreled past fence barricades outside the Capitol and clashed with officers. Shouting demonstrators mobbed the second-floor lobby just outside the Senate chamber, as law enforcement officials placed themselves in front of the chamber doors.
For a time, senators and members of the House were locked inside their respective chambers. Just outside the locked doors, Trump’s supporters violently tussled with police. A woman inside the building was shot and later died, the District of Columbia police said. Three others died of “medical emergencies,” authorities said. Multiple officers were injured.
As the mob closed in, senators were rushed into the well of the Senate and down into the basement, where they left the building via an underground tunnel.
When the violence broke out, it was Pence, sheltering in the Capitol, not Trump who approved the deployment of the D.C. National Guard, according to Defense Department officials. Trump initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize forces, according to a person with knowledge of the events. It required intervention from Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, among other officials, the person said.
At the White House, officials — including two from the East Wing and a top press aide — began submitting their resignations, with more expected to follow in the coming days. “I don’t recognize our country today, and the members of Congress who have supported this anarchy do not deserve to represent their fellow Americans,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.
Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane c.2021 The New York Times Company
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