Lawmakers Resume Electoral Vote Certification After Mob Storms Capitol

Congress resumed certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory on Wednesday evening just hours after hundreds of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and breached both legislative chambers in an effort to disrupt the ceremonial proceeding.

“They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “This failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic.”

Senators agreed to consolidate expected challenges from Republican senators to Biden’s electoral votes in several battleground states into one overall objection that will be voted upon by the chamber before it recesses. The challenge is expected to fail.

“I just don’t think there’s going to be another objection. I think it’s over at that point,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), fresh off of losing her seat in Georgia’s runoff elections, said on the Senate floor that she would no longer support the effort to stop the election from being certified.

“When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes. However, the events of this morning have forced me to reconsider. I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors.”

At least one person was fatally shot as Trump supporters busted through barricades, scaled walls, broke windows and entered legislators’ offices. One man even broke into the Senate chamber and sat on the dais reserved for the president of the Senate, where Vice President Mike Pence had been presiding minutes before, yelling, “Trump won that election!”

Before violence at the Capitol, many Republicans had happily signed on to Trump’s claims that the election was stolen from them. They boosted baseless claims of voter fraud and said they would object to electoral votes from multiple states ― all of them ones Trump lost ― even though state-level officials had already confirmed the results.

Many of those Republicans insisted they only wanted a commission to look into those states’ results. But Trump made it clear that the goal of the effort was to keep him in power.

Several GOP senators blamed Wednesday’s shocking and surreal events directly on Trump and his rhetoric inciting the violence.

“The President bears responsibility for today’s events by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said in a statement.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) condemned the “insurrection” at the Capitol and took aim at the dozen GOP senators who planned to object to Biden’s victory.

“Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor that Jan. 6, 2021, will go down as one of the darkest days in American history.

“This president bears a great deal of the blame,” Schumer said. “This mob was in good part President Trump’s doing.”

Some of the Republicans who earlier Wednesday were trying to block certification of election results changed their tune after the violence. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said that he expected Biden to be certified as the next president at the end of the process.

“Obviously the commission that we have asked for is not going to happen at this point, and I understand that,” Lankford said on the Senate floor. ” We will work together in this body to be able to set a peaceful example for the days ahead.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.