01/07/2021
Republican Vice President Mike Pence certified the vote of 306 large voters in favor of the Democratic candidate, compared to 232 for Trump.
The United States Congress ratified Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election, after violent protesters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to reverse the election result, undermine the country’s democracy and allow the outgoing Republican president, Donald Trump , still in the White House.
With the country still shaken by the riots, which left four dead, Republican Vice President Mike Pence certified the vote of 306 voters in favor of the Democratic candidate, compared to 232 for Trump.
After the chaos sown on Wednesday by the supporters of the outgoing president for hours until they were evicted by the police, the legislators decided to continue on Wednesday night with the process of validating the elections, in a sample for the country and the world of their commitment with the will of the voters and a peaceful transfer of power.
The process was carried out with the nation on alert and the city of Washington under an unusual curfew decreed after the riots, which left four dead.
Trump, who has refused to accept his defeat, said in a statement immediately after the vote that there will be an orderly transition on the day of Biden’s inauguration, January 20,
“Although I strongly disagree with the outcome of this election. and the facts support me, there will be a transition in order on January 20, “he said in a statement, the AFP news agency reported.
“This represents the end of one of the best first presidential terms and it is just the beginning of our fight to restore America to its greatness,” he added.
The ratification came after a day with few precedents in US political history, with the Capitol besieged by Trump supporters and lawmakers seeking refuge under desks and protected by gas masks as police tried to erect barricades around the building. congressional.
A woman died after being shot in the chest inside the Capitol and three other people died in the vicinity of Congress from “medical emergencies,” police said.
The protest was called and encouraged by Trump himself, who for weeks has been making false complaints about the transparency of the November 3 elections, in which he was defeated by Biden.
The session was already extraordinary due to the fact that several Republican legislators were raising objections to the results when the procedure had to be interrupted by the violent irruption of Trump supporters.
Both the protests and the objections of Republican lawmakers constituted an unthinkable challenge to democratic principles and exposed the deep divisions in the United States, which worsened dramatically during Trump’s four years in the White House.
Congress reconvened at nightfall, amid condemnations of protests by legislators from both parties and determined to certify Biden’s triumph, even if it took all night.
Pence reopened the procedure in the Senate addressing the protesters directly: “You did not win,” he said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the “failed insurrection” underscored the duty of Congress to confirm Biden’s victory.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, said Congress must show the world “what America is made of” and complete its certification work.
The outgoing president emboldened his supporters hours before the violence with a morning rally outside the White House where he urged them to march to the Capitol.
At the request of his advisers and from the Oval Room of the White House, Trump issued a couple of tweets and recorded a video in which he asked the protesters to “go home in peace”, although he also supported their cause.
Grim-faced, President-elect Biden said the country’s democracy was “under unprecedented assault,” a sentiment echoed by numerous lawmakers in Congress.
The dead woman was part of the crowd that stormed Congress and broke through a barricade that protected a room where armed police officers were present, police said.
She was shot in the chest by Capitol agents and taken to a hospital where she died. Three other people, a woman and two men, died around the Capitol “due to medical emergencies.”
