National Review
A last-ditch effort by some of President Donald Trump’s most ardent backers in the U.S. House and Senate to object to November's presidential election results during a joint session of Congress was suspended Wednesday afternoon after a massive crowd of pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol building.Some lawmakers fled, and others sheltered inside, while protesters waving Trump 2020 flags swarmed Capitol Hill. At least one person was shot, according to news reports.It was not immediately clear if the Congressional hearing would be able to resume on Wednesday to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.Earlier in the day, Trump riled up the crowd at a rally where he ranted that November’s election was a “disgrace,” repeated baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election, and vowed that, “We will never give up. We will never concede.”He urged the crowd to march to the Capitol to “cheer on” members of Congress who had intended to challenge the vote counts in several states that Trump lost in November.“Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country,” Trump told the crowd, adding that, “our country has been under siege for a long time.”Photos and video from the scene showed protesters breaking windows, posing on the House and Senate floors, and taking over Congressional offices. Trump did not condemn the protesters and did not immediately ask them to leave the Capitol. Rather, he tweeted his support for Capitol police and law enforcement.“I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order,” Trump tweeted.> I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021While Trump tweeted, Biden appeared on television calling for the mob to disperse.“This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end. Now,” he said. “I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.”The words of a president matter, Biden said. At best, they can inspire. At worst, they can incite, he said, calling on Trump to try to calm his supporters.“I call on President Trump, go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the constitution and demand and end to this siege,” Biden said.Trump eventually released a short video urging protesters to go home, but also continuing to egg them on with allegations that the election was stolen, that he won in a landslide, and “everyone knows it.”“But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” Trump said. “We love you. You’re very special. … I know how you feel.”A cadre of House and Senate Republicans had intended to use Wednesday’s joint session of Congress to formally object to the Electoral College votes in a series of states that Trump lost in November, the latest effort to cast doubt and overturn the presidential election based on unfounded allegations of fraud trumpeted by Trump and his allies.The effort had virtually no chance of success, as every Democrat and many Republicans were expected to reject the challenges. But that it would happen at all shows just how firm a grip Trump still has on the Republican Party, even as his time in the White House nears its end.“I’m going to be watching,” Trump said at his rally, “because history is going to be made. We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders, or whether or not we have leaders who should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity, they’ll be ashamed.”Trump vowed to “primary the hell out of” Republicans who don’t fight for him.The session started peacefully just after 1 p.m. when members of Congress counted the certificate of votes for both Alabama and Alaska – two states that voted for Trump. When it came time to certify the votes in Arizona, where Biden narrowly won by just over 10,000 votes, Rep. Paul Gossar (R-Ariz) stood to object to counting the ballots from his state. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas formally joined the objection in writing, sending the two chambers to debate the measure separately.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has long urged his members not to object to the Electoral College votes, decried the objection to the Arizona votes, and spoke against heading down a “poisonous path where only the winners of elections accept the results.” It would be wrong, he said, to disenfranchise voters and to declare the Senate a “national board of elections on steroids.”Every election has some irregularities, McConnell said, adding that he supports “strong, state-led voting reforms.” The 2020 pandemic voting procedures shouldn’t be the new norm.But, he said, “nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election. Nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence.”During debate in the Senate, Cruz denied that he was trying to set aside the election results. Rather, he said, he was trying to find a way to ensure for Americans that November's votes were legitimate. He called for an election commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the results in the states where Trump and his allies have alleged fraud.“What does it say to the nearly half of the country that believes this election was rigged if we vote, not even to consider the claims of illegality and fraud in this election, Cruz said, while acknowledging that if Democrats stick together, “Joe Biden will almost certainly be certified as the next president of the United States.”The protestors stormed the Capitol soon after Cruz finished speaking.Trump and his allies have been riling up his supporters for two months now, alleging that the November election was stolen from him due to fraud in several states, including Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Election officials who have reviewed the results in those states say they’ve found no evidence of fraud or large numbers of illegal votes.Trump continued to repeat a litany of disproven conspiracies during his rally on Wednesday, including allegations that voting machines stole votes, that large numbers of dead people and ineligible felons cast ballots, and that “tens of thousands of illegitimate votes” were counted.“Our election was so corrupt, that in the history of this country we’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump told the crowd, that chanted “fight for Trump.”Trump also leaned heavy on Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday, claiming – incorrectly – that Pence has unilateral authority to reject electors certified by states in which he claims that his victory was stolen. During the rally, Trump repeatedly called on Pence to send the electors back to the states, so he could remain president and “and you are the happiest people.”“Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country,” Trump told the crowd.Pence announced Wednesday afternoon that he would not accede to President Trump's demand that he reject slates of electors submitted by battleground states.“It’s is my considered judgment,” he said, “that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
