Vice President Mike Pence will reportedly continue presiding over today’s joint session of Congress, examining the results of the 2020 presidential election. This following a recent tweet by his Press Secretary, Devin O’Malley confirming that while the Vice President had been escorted to a safe location out of the Senate Chamber, but had never left the Capitol following the violent protests that engulfed the building.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham recently announced on Twitter Wednesday evening that the United States Senate will reconvene to continue the certification process of the November 3rd election. The January 6th joint session of Congress sparked a firestorm of tumult and civil unrest after pro-Trump protestors broke through Washington D.C. police barricades and stormed the U.S. Capitol building. This follows what was initially a peaceful event with thousands of dedicated protestors attending the “Save America rally”, hosted by various members of the Trump Campaign in front of the White House. A number of Trump family members’ campaign officials and Republican allies delivered remarks at the rally, including Donald Trump Jr., Katrina Pierson, Ken Paxton, and Rudy Giuliani. The event drew large crowds and spoke to the repeated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
President Trump himself spoke, voicing his complaints against how the 2020 election was “stolen” and cited multiple instances of fraud in place to ensure that he lost. A notable element of Trump’s throughout the rally was the repeated call for Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the results of the 2020 election, and to instead send the proposed results back 50 individual state legislatures, allowing the states with disputed claims of fraud to recertify the results and propose an alternate slate of delegates. “I hope Mike Pence does the right thing,” President Trump emphasized in his speech.
“The U.S. Senate must reconvene today and finish our constitutional work”, Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted, “calling for federal officials to form task force to identify those who breached the Capitol, vandalized our national institutions, and expect prosecutions to the fullest extent of the law.”
Graham tweeted about his zero tolerance for the violent storming of the Capitol, believing that the Capitol Hill police should have done more to quell the riots in the city, regretting that “those in charge lost control”.
This follows after multiple protestors marched down Constitution Avenue, broke through police lines and stormed the halls of the Capitol building. One protestor was able to make it as far as the Senate Chamber, where at the dais he said, “Trump won the election.” Police deployed tear gas at rioters in the building and one female pro-Trump protester was reportedly shot in the neck during the ensuing chaos. That woman would later die from her wounds while being transported to a nearby hospital.
As the joint session of Congress, examining the certification results of the 2020 presidential election reconvenes, approximately 140 Republican members pledged to object to the results of the election. Many of these Members of Congress include some of President Trump’s staunchest supporters in the House, like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). And on January 2nd, Texas Senator Ted Cruz declared that he and a dozen other Republican Senators would vow to object to the results of the 2020 presidential election in states like Arizona and Georgia. This follows, after Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri declared that he would object to the results in Pennsylvania, citing concern over rampant voter fraud and election law being disregarded in the state.
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