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U.S. Elections – January 7, 2021
TrueNewsblog-TNB
By: Steve Johnson
(TrueNewsBlog) – It was after 03:00 am in the morning, hours after hundreds of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a harrowing assault on American democracy, a shaken Congress on Thursday formally certified Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Immediately afterward, the White House released a statement from Trump in which he pledged an “orderly transition” when Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, although he repeated his false claim that he won the November election.
Early Wednesday morning Trump incited a mob to swarm the Capitol seeking to overturn the election result.
The destructive and shocking images at the Capitol of what other Republicans called an “insurrection” filled television screens in America and around the world, a deep stain on Trump’s presidency and legacy as his tenure nears its end.
In certifying Biden’s win, longtime Trump allies such as Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell rejected his pleas for intervention, while the violence at the Capitol spurred several administration officials to quit.
Among them was Mick Mulvaney, a former White House chief of staff who resigned his post as a special envoy to Northern Ireland. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of my friends resign over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said on CNBC.
A source familiar with the situation said there have been discussions among some Cabinet members and Trump allies about invoking the 25th Amendment, which would allow a majority of the Cabinet to declare Trump unable to perform his duties, making Pence the acting president. A second source doubted the effort would go anywhere given Trump has less than two weeks left in office.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said Trump’s Cabinet should be ready to act, as Trump could stir more trouble ahead of Biden’s inauguration.
“They better be ready to do that if it continues because you cannot have a president basically leading an insurrection against our own country’s government,” she said on CBS.
After the chaos on Capitol Hill, Congress resumed its work late Wednesday certifying Biden’s Electoral College win – normally a formality but which included efforts by some Republican lawmakers to stall the process.
As the sometimes tense debate stretched into the early hours of Thursday, the Senate and the House of Representatives rejected two objections to the tally and certified the final Electoral College count with Biden receiving 306 votes and Trump 232 votes.
McConnell, who had long remained silent while Trump sought to overturn the election results, chastised other Republicans who stalled certification. He called the invasion a “failed insurrection.”
They tried to disrupt our democracy,” he said on the Senate floor. “They failed.”
The outcome of the certification proceedings was never in doubt, but it was interrupted by rioters who forced their way past metal security barricades, broke windows and scaled walls to fight their way into the Capitol.
Police said four people died during the chaos – one from gunshot wounds and three from medical emergencies – and 52 people were arrested.
Some besieged the House chamber while lawmakers were inside, banging on its doors. Security officers piled furniture against the chamber’s door and drew their pistols before helping lawmakers and others escape.
The assault on the Capitol was the culmination of months of divisive and escalating rhetoric around the Nov. 3 election, with Trump repeatedly making false claims that the vote was rigged and urging his supporters to help him overturn his loss.
Following Thursday’s certification, he issued a statement via White House aide Dan Scavino, 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.”
Biden said on Wednesday that the activity of the rioters “borders on sedition.”
The violence came on the day that his Democratic party secured narrow control of the Senate with wins in two Georgia runoff elections. —
