U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Tasos Katopodis/Getty
Images/AFP
Donald Trump’s supporters on Wednesday stormed a session
of Congress held to certify Joe Biden’s win, as a desperate
last-minute bid by the president to overturn his election loss
sparked chaos and accusations of a “coup” attempt.
Hours after an extraordinary rally by Trump challenging his
defeat, his flag-waving backers broke down barricades outside the
Capitol and swarmed inside, with the special session going into an
emergency recess as protesters entered the chambers.
The chaos at the Capitol, which was put under lockdown, came one
day after Biden enjoyed a new triumph as his Democratic Party
looked set to win two Senate runoff seats, handing full control of
Congress.
Police fired tear gas as they struggled to remove a sea of
protesters who took aim, at Trump’s urging, at what for more than
two centuries had been a quiet, ceremonial session to confirm the
election’s winner.
“The President of the United States is inciting a coup. We will
not be intimidated. We will not be deterred,” tweeted Democratic
Representative Karen Bass.
Representative Val Demings likewise denounced the storming of
the Capitol as evidence of “a coup in progress” — in words echoed
by half a dozen lawmakers.
Representative Elaine Luria said she had to evacuate because of
a report of a pipe bomb and said she believed she heard
gunshots.
“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,” she said.
– ‘Damage our republic forever’ –
Biden is certain to become president, with Democrats already
controlling the House of Representatives, but more than 140
Republican House members and a dozen Republican senators have sided
with Trump in challenging the results even though no evidence of
fraud has been proven in court.
Republican Senate leader Senator Mitch McConnell, for four years
a staunch backer of Trump, denounced the challenge in an
impassioned address, noting that the results of the November 3 vote
were not even close.
“The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken. If we
overrule them, it will damage our republic forever,” said
McConnell, who is set to lose his position of majority leader after
Democrats’ Senate wins.
“If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the
losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,” said
McConnell, who also accused Democrats of not accepting Trump’s
surprise 2016 victory.
Senator Chuck Schumer voiced alarm moments before protesters
entered the Capitol, saying: “An element of the Republican Party
believes their political viability hinges on the endorsement of an
attempted coup.”
– ‘We will never concede’ –
As scenes of chaos spread, Trump took to Twitter to call on his
supporters to be peaceful and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser
imposed a 6 pm curfew in the city.
But in his rally near the White House, Trump urged them to head
to the Capitol.
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Rambling angrily, the president warned “weak” Republicans not to
certify Biden’s victory and put direct pressure on Vice President
Mike Pence, who ceremonially presided over the session.
swordpress.ng ojoojoo.com search: Washington Orders 6:00
Pm Curfew As Trump Backers Storm Capitol
“We will never give up. We will never concede,” Trump told the
cheering crowd, few wearing masks despite a spike in Covid
cases.
“I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do,” Trump
said, describing the US election as less honest than those of
“Third World countries.”
As Trump was still speaking and Congress opened the session,
Pence — dutifully loyal to Trump over four years and quiet since
the election — said he would not intervene.
“The Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral
authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and
which should not,” Pence said in a statement.
Thousands of Trump supporters had headed to Washington at his
urging in recent days, with downtown businesses boarding up in fear
of violence.
“I can’t say I respect our election process anymore,” said Gail
Shaw, 76, who drove down from New Jersey. “We will take our nation
back.”
Biden won more than seven million votes more than Trump in the
November 3 election and leads him 306-232 in the state-by-state
Electoral College that determines elections.
Trump has repeatedly alleged without no evidence that there was
vote-rigging but his team has not been able to prove a single case
in court.
– New mandate for Democrats –
The session of Congress comes one day after voters went to the
polls in Georgia and appear to have handed a pair of stunning
victories to the Democratic Senate candidates over Republican
incumbents.
A Democratic sweep would result in a 50-50 split in the Senate
with Democrats holding the tie-breaking vote in Vice President
Kamala Harris.
Biden is due to be sworn in on January 20 and control of the
Senate would give his Democrats the levers of power in the
executive branch and both chambers of Congress and allow him to
push through his legislative agenda.
“After the past four years, after the election, and after
today’s election certification proceedings on the Hill, it’s time
to turn the page,” Biden said in a statement.
“The American people demand action and they want unity. I am
more optimistic than I ever have been that we can deliver both,” he
said.
In Georgia, Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, the pastor at
the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King once preached, was
projected to defeat Republican Kelly Loeffler, a 50-year-old
businesswoman appointed to the Senate in December 2019.
Warnock, 51, would be just the third African-American to win a
Senate seat from the South.
In the other Georgia race, Democrat Jon Ossoff, a 33-year-old
video producer, claimed victory on Wednesday over Republican David
Perdue.
AFP
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