Democrats and Republicans had resumed the process of counting the Electoral College votes that will certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, shortly after police had cleared the U.S. Capitol of violent Trump supporters.
After a mob of protesters stormed the Capitol building, which interrupted a joint session of Congress that was viewed by President Donald Trump and his supporters as a final chance to overturn the election results, lawmakers and press members were forced to shelter in place as police attempted to regain order.
Returning to the Senate chamber, Vice-President Mike Pence used his position as president of the Senate to condemn the protesters.
“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins,” Vice-President Mike Pence said. “Let’s get back to work.”
Democrats and Republicans condemned the mob as chaos descended onto the House Chamber floor and protesters supporting the president breached the Capitol building’s doors. Some Republicans called on their colleagues to cancel their plans to object to the Electoral College vote certification, which was underway when the protest grew violent.
Trump tweeted that “these are the things that happen.” He told the mob to “go home,” while refusing to concede the legitimacy of the election results, maintaining that the U.S. election was stolen from him in a video posted to Twitter.
Twitter has since deleted those tweets, and has limited users from replying, retweeting or liking several other tweets that feature disputed election claims “due to a risk of violence.” Trump will be locked out from his account until the tweets are removed, the networking service said.
“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrumpTweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter wrote.
“This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.”
By Kristofel Abella
Ka Lā News staff writer
