A violent siege of the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday forced lawmakers to delay sealing President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory, which went ahead only after authorities spent hours clearing supporters of President Donald Trump from the area.
Police confirmed a total of four people died after a mob of protesters stormed the Capitol building, interrupting a joint session of Congress that was viewed by Trump and his supporters as a final chance to overturn the election results. Lawmakers and press members were forced to shelter in place for hours as police attempted to regain order.
Returning to the Senate chamber Wednesday evening, 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,” he said. “Let’s get back to work.”
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, called Wednesday “one of the darkest days” in recent history, adding that those responsible should be prosecuted to the “full extent of the law.”
“They should be provided no lenience,” he said. Schumer said the lawmakers will resume their responsibilities and “will finish our task tonight.”
Lawmakers eventually finished counting the electoral votes despite hours of debate sparked by Republican objections. Early Thursday morning, Pence declared Joe Biden the winner of the election.
Trump said in a statement shortly after Pence’s declaration that he would support a peaceful transition of power “even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election.”
The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., said a woman who was shot inside the Capitol during the protest died at a nearby hospital. The shot was fired by a Capitol Hill police officer during an armed standoff between police and rioters.
Police said late Wednesday that three other people, a man and two women, died Wednesday due to “individual medical emergencies.” Over 50 arrests were made, the majority of them on Capitol grounds, while 14 police officers were injured.
D.C. police officials also say two pipe bombs were recovered, one outside the Democratic National Committee and one outside the Republican National Committee. Police found a cooler from a vehicle that had a long gun and Molotov cocktail on Capitol grounds.
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” when an election is so heavily disputed. 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 on Wednesday.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us,” he said.
“But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.”
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.”
Facebook and Instagram later said they would lock Trump’s accounts for 24 hours. Facebook also removed Trump’s video statement and other posts that the company ruled “contribute to, rather than diminish, the risk of ongoing violence.”
Chaos descended on the Capitol as U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence was pulled from the House Chamber floor and police dispersed tear gas to push back the mob, telling members of Congress inside the House chamber to put on gas masks. Several senators tweeted they were sheltering in their offices while security evacuated much of the building.