Congress Certifies Biden's Electoral College Victory, Hours After Pro-Trump Mob Sieged the Capitol
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Hours after a mob—incited by President Trump's false claims of election fraud and direction to march to Capitol Hill—stormed the Capitol building and forced the vote to certify the Electoral College results to halt, the joint session of Congress reconvened to ratify the election.
President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College victory was certified, after challenges to Biden's wins in Arizona and Pennsylvania were rejected, though not unilaterally (seven senators and 138 members of the House voted in favor of the Pennsylvania challenge, while six senators and 121 House members supported the Arizona challenge). Usually, this legislative procedure is a formality that reaffirms the results of the presidential election, but after Trump spent months baselessly and recklessly attempting to overturn the election, the proceedings became a point of contention—though some lawmakers backed off of threats to vote in favor of the baseless challenges after the mob sieged the Capitol.
Many blamed the Republican legislators who had mounted a challenge to the Electoral College results for the Trump supporters' insurrection. “That attack today, it didn’t materialize out of nowhere,” Representative Conor Lamb said during the late night House debate over the Pennsylvania challenge, per the New York Times. “It was inspired by lies, the same lies you’re hearing in this room tonight, and the members who are repeating those lies should be ashamed of themselves.”
In a statement issued early this morning, after the Electoral College vote was certified, President Trump promised that there would be an "orderly transition" to the Biden administration—though he also repeated his false claims of election fraud. "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," the statement read. (It was issued through Dan Scavino, as Trump's Twitter account was temporarily suspended.)
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