Trump agrees to ‘orderly transition’ as four die in US Capitol riots

3.8k

View
comments

Donald Trump has promised an ‘orderly transition’ of power after Joe Biden’s election win was finally certified by Congress – a process delayed by hours after a day of chaos in the US Capitol that left four dead.

Trump, who has been temporarily banned from Twitter in the wake of the riot, issued a statement via his social media director Dan Scavino which said: ‘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. 

‘I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. 

‘While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!’

The statement came after one of the darkest days in American political history which began with Trump urging his supporters to march on the Capitol Building to stop the result being certified, and ended with four people dead.

Congress had to be suspended as Trump’s supporters rioted in the symbolic home of western democracy, looting and breaking into congressional offices as politicians donned gas masks and fled under armed guard. 

One woman – 14-year Air Force veteran Ashli Babbit – was shot dead inside the building, while three others died from ‘individual medical emergencies’ elsewhere on Capitol property.

Pipe bombs were also left outside the headquarters of the Democrat and Republican National Committees and a truck-full of rifles and Molotov cocktails seized.

As the anarchy raged, Trump’s own cabinet began discussing using the 25th amendment to declare him unfit for office before his term officially ends at noon on January 20 when Joe Biden is inaugurated, CBS News reported.

Meanwhile Trump was booted off social media for 24 hours after describing the mob as ‘great patriots’ and claiming, without evidence, that the election was being ‘viciously stolen’.

Biden described the rioters as ‘extremists’ staging an ‘insurrection’ that ‘bordered on sedition’. 

Congress was eventually able to return to session where the typically-routine business of certifying Joe Biden’s win was completed – with Vice President Mike Pence sealing his fate, despite Trump urging him to rebel.

Amid the chaos…

• It was revealed that Trump had ‘rebuffed and resisted’ attempts to call in the National Guard and end the rioting, leaving the job to Mike Pence
• Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger and Stephanie Grisham, former press secretary who became chief of staff for Melania Trump, quit in protest over the violence – with more expected to follow
• A fist-fight almost broke out in the House during a speech by Democrat congressman Conor Lamb who called Republicans backing efforts to overturn the election ‘liars’ and said they should be ‘ashamed’
• All eyes turned on Trump’s Twitter account as his 12-hour ban looked set to expire, with indefinite suspension on the table if he continues to breach their rules 

Babbit was identified as the woman shot inside the Capitol by her husband, who said she was a 14-year veteran who served four tours with Air Force as a ‘high level security official’, a fervent supporter of Trump and ‘a great patriot to all who knew her’.

It remains unclear who shot Babbit as the Metropolitan Police Department in DC conducts an investigation into her death. Witness accounts and videos from the incident suggested that she may have been shot by police while trying to climb through a broken window near congressional chambers.

A fellow Trump supporter told WUSA 9: ‘A number of police and secret service were saying “get back, get down, get out of the way.”

‘She didn’t heed the call and as we kind of raced up to grab people and pull them back they shot her in the neck and she fell back on me.

‘And she started to say “it’s fine, it’s cool” and then she started kinda moving weird and blood was coming out of her mouth and neck and nose and I don’t know if she’s alive or dead any more.’

He added: ‘I’m not injured… it could have been me, but she went in first.’

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency in the city for the next 15 days until Biden’s inauguration.

Biden himself spoke out amid the anarchy, labeling the rioters ‘extremists’ who were ‘dedicated to lawlessness’ while urging Trump ‘to go on national television to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.’

Congress was eventually able to return to session where Biden’s election victory was certified, despite the continued objections of Republican senators and congressmen. 

The lawmakers were seen flanked by armed guards as they made their way back into chambers.

Trump’s fate was sealed by Vice President Pence at 3:41 a.m. Thursday morning as he certified President-elect Joe Biden’s win – despite the attempt of scores of Republicans to object to it.

Congress’ overwhelming rejection of attempts to overturn the vote and Pence’s role in it will surely further enrage Trump, who wanted his VP to unilaterally overrule Biden’s win. 

With just 13 days left of his presidency, Trump is now at war with Mitch McConnell, facing whispers of his own cabinet trying to force him out and Democrats openly discussing impeaching him again – while just a handful of senators led by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and the majority of the House GOP remain loyal. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the certification would resume in a letter to Democratic colleagues, writing: ‘We have decided we should proceed tonight at the Capitol once it is cleared for use.’  

‘We always knew this responsibility would take us into the night. The night may still be long but we are hopeful for a shorter agenda, but our purpose will be accomplished,’ she said. 

Vice President Mike Pence reopened the Senate by condemning the violent siege ‘in the strongest possible terms’ – but did not lay the blame on Trump for inciting the MAGA mob.

‘To those who wreaked havoc in our capitol today, you did not win,’ Pence said. ‘Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people’s house.’

The vice president, who is chairing the special Senate session, called it a ‘dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.’

‘But thanks to the swift efforts of the U.S. Capitol Police, federal, state and local law enforcement, the violence was quelled. The Capitol is secured and the people’s work continues,’ Pence said.

But astonishingly – and to the disgust of Republicans including Mitt Romney and every Democrat – some Republicans continued their doomed bid to overturn the election result. 

In the Senate, objections were filed in Arizona and Pennsylvania, but both were torpedoed by majority vote. 

House Republicans also tried to challenge the results in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, but didn’t have final support. 

Pennsylvania’s vote concluded just before 1am, virtually bringing the 12-hour certification saga to a close. 

Former President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney lashed out at Donald Trump‘s loyalists in Congress on Wednesday, claiming they are the ones who caused the president’s biggest supporters to storm the Capitol building.

‘It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight,’ the 43rd U.S. president said in a statement Wednesday. ‘This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic.’

Romney, who has been an outspoken critic of the president from his post as Utah senator the last two years, said the chaos on Capitol Hill was due to a ‘selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action.’

He also blamed his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate for agreeing to object to the Electoral College results and giving supporters false hope that there is a way to overturn Joe Biden‘s victory.

‘The objectors have claimed they are doing so on behalf of the voters,’ Romney said in a statement released Wednesday. ‘Have an audit, they say, to satisfy the many people who believe that the election was stolen. Please! No Congressional led audit will ever convince those voters, particularly when the President will continue to claim that the election was stolen.’ 

The chaotic scenes unfolded at about 3pm, soon after Trump addressed thousands of his supporters and encouraged them to march to the Capitol. The protesters organized via far-right social media sites, including Gab and Parler, telling each other the best routes to avoid police on their way to the Capitol. 

As the mob broke down police barricades and stormed into the Capitol, lawmakers cowering inside the House Chamber were told to put on gas masks as tear gas was fired in the Rotunda. Officers at the front door of the chamber had their guns drawn at a protester trying to break down the door.

For those fleeing, it was a race against time: Protesters were getting in as quickly as members of Congress could get out. 

One protester occupied the Senate dais and yelled: ‘Trump won that election’. Some protesters even occupied Pelosi’s office, sitting mockingly at a desk. 

After protesters started clashing with law enforcement, Trump tweeted to his supporters to ‘stay peaceful’. 

‘Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!’ the president wrote.

As the violence escalated, Trump tweeted: ‘I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!’ 

He did not initially tell the protesters to leave. 

Biden on Wednesday evening called for the restoration of ‘simple decency’ after the mob delayed Congress from certifying the results of November’s election. 

‘At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times,’ Biden said. He called it ‘an assault on the rule of law like few times we have ever seen it.’ 

‘I call on this mob to pull back and allow democracy to go forward. 

In an address that took less than 10 minutes and was televised against a split screen of the still-occupied Capitol building, Biden attempted to project calm and to say that a deeply divided country can still come together – while also expressing outrage. 

He stopped short of accusing Trump of treason but said the events ‘bordered on sedition’. 

‘At their best, the words of a president can inspire,’ Biden added. ‘At their worst they can incite.’ 

Minutes after Biden’s address, Trump posted his own video telling his mob of supporters that he ‘loves’ them, but to ‘go home’. In the same breath he also continued to peddle his baseless claims that the ‘election was stolen’. 

‘There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us – from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people,’ he said.

‘We have to have peace. So, go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.’ 

The video was later removed by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube because it violated their policies.  

The president then posted another tweet reiterating his false claim that the election was stolen and encouraging supporters to ‘remember this day’. The tweet was perceived by some as an attempt to rile up the Capitol crowds.  

‘These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,’ he tweeted. ‘Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!’

Twitter removed the tweet for violating its rules. 

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Democrats captured control of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday when Jon Ossoff defeated GOP Sen. David Perdue in a Georgia Senate runoff, in a victory that hands a major win to President-elect Joe Biden.

Ossoff, 33, knocked off Republican Sen. David Perdue, who had said he will back President Trump’s effort to overturn the election results.

His celebratory moment came as the U.S. Capitol was still being occupied by a mob of Donald Trump supporters who breached the building, with U.S. Capitol Police seeking to regain order while aided by National Guard forces.

Although his win was being overshadowed by history-making events unfolding in the Capitol while Trump supporters sought to disrupt the count that will make Joe Biden’s win official, it is certain to reverberate throughout Biden’s tenure.

With Democrats at 50-50 with Republicans, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will give Democrats a majority in the chamber.

That will allow Biden to confirm cabinet members, install his appointees on federal courts, and fashion major legislation that can overcome Republican hurdles.

Ossoff, who runs a documentary film company and once worked on Capitol Hill, declared himself the winner of his contest with Republican Senator David Perdue before networks made the call, a claim quickly backed up in statements from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

His will be the second victory – the Rev. Raphael Warnock was first win of the night, beating Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler – and would give Democrats complete control on Capitol Hill for the next two years.

‘It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States senate. Thank you for the confidence and trust you have placed in me,’ Ossoff said in a video posted to Twitter.

He led Perdue by more than 17,000 votes, which is just shy of a 0.5 percent threshold to avoid a recount. Most outstanding votes were from Democratic-leaning areas.

Mob smashes through police barriers and wall of tear gas to stop Biden’s victory being certified: How Trump protesters turned Congress into a battlefield 

Capitol Police used tear gas as hundreds of people were seen climbing the marble steps outside the building. They banged on the locked doors of the Capitol and smashed the glass in the doors.

Demonstrators fought with police and then forced their way into the building. 

Asked how so many people were able to get in, officials said they were focusing their attention on keeping lawmakers inside safe. 

One video posted on TikTok appeared to show a group of about four officers standing by as protesters pushed past a barricade near the Capitol building. 

The officers did not appear to try to block the stampede, instead walking with it toward the building.  

One protester jumped up on the dais, where the president of the Senate presides, and yelled: ‘Trump won that election.’

Several dozen protesters roamed the halls of the Capitol, yelling: ‘Where are they?’

Tear gas was being used by Capitol Police as protesters filled both the House and Senate side of the Capitol.

Another protester in the Senate yelled: ‘Where’s Pence, show yourself!’

The chaos caused the Capitol to go on lockdown and disrupted the certification of the electoral college vote that would cement Biden’s victory. 

Mayor Bowser declared a 6pm curfew for the city and said multiple law enforcement agencies would be patrolling the streets. Just before the curfew went into effect she was asked multiple by times by CNN if curfew violators would be arrested, but she refused to give a clear answer. 

Bowser said ‘many’ arrests had already been made but did not have a specific number.  

As footage started coming out of Capitol Hill being breached by angry Trump supporters, Donald Trump Jr  tried to quell the outburst with a tweet – that was critical of Democrats and liberals.

‘This is wrong and not who we are. Be peaceful and use your 1st Amendment rights, but don’t start acting like the other side,’ Trump Jr. wrote. ‘We have a country to save and this doesn’t help anyone.’

Meanwhile, the president continued to direct his rage at Pence, who earlier announced he would not single-handedly overturn the election results from his position of the chair.

‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!’ the president tweeted.

The extraordinary breech was a departure from security mishaps of the past. Protesters have routinely disrupted televised hearings while in progress and even events inside the House chamber. But trained Capitol Police are usually able to arrest disruptors and remove them immediately. Often formal charges are never filed.

But in Wednesday’s storming of the building, dozens of people made it by armed police officers and entered the building without going through any security set up to keep out those with weapons or dangerous items.

There were occasions after September 11th when the building was placed on lockdown and people were ordered to leave, but this usually happened when suspicious packages were discovered.

When the building is open, as it was before the pandemic, members of the general public are not allowed to walk unescorted on the second floor where lawmakers enter and exit the legislative chambers.

The protesters were aided by scaffolding constructed for the upcoming inauguration. 

In another tense piece of video from inside, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) tweeted video of protesters repeatedly rushing Capitol Police officers in the crypt, in the ground floor part of the building under the rotunda.

‘I like many people voted for President Trump in the 2020 election and hoped for a different result,’ McCaul wrote. ‘But violence and destruction is not the way to express your grievances. This is disgraceful and has to end.’

Trump’s mob causes chaos nationwide: MAGA fans take to the streets in California, Oregon, New Mexico and Kansas and surround Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office   

As the US Capitol was stormed, Trump supporters staged smaller rallies outside statehouses in several cities, including Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. 

Protesters swarmed into the Kansas statehouse in Topeka and gathered inside the first floor of the Capitol Rotunda, though the rally remained orderly, television station KSNT reported.

There were no immediate reports of violence, despite the flurry of demonstrations by pro-Trump demonstrators echoing his baseless claims that he was robbed of a re-election victory due to voter fraud.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said on Twitter that he had instructed city agencies to close municipal offices early in Colorado’s state capital ‘out of an abundance of caution’ after about 700 demonstrators gathered at the statehouse downtown.

‘My hope is that this situation will be resolved quickly. Pray for our nation,’ he tweeted.

A major courthouse complex and two other government buildings in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, were also ordered closed due to protests near the statehouse.

Among those whose daily routines were altered were aides to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, the Republican election official pressured by Trump in a weekend telephone call to ‘find’ enough additional votes for the president to overturn the November victory of President-elect Joe Biden, due to take office in two weeks.

Raffensperger’s spokesman, Walter Jones, said staff left their offices after lunch out of an abundance of caution because of protests. He said Raffensperger was not in the office at the time.

In Salt Lake City, Dana Jones, director of the state Capitol Preservation Board, said she had asked building staff to work from home on Wednesday afternoon on the advice of the Utah Highway Patrol and public safety commissioner, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The precaution was taken, the newspaper said, in response to a crowd of about 250 pro-Trump demonstrators who posted signs on the Capitol building that read: ‘Stop the steal!’ and ‘Trump won!’

A Utah state police spokesman said security had been beefed up at the Capitol, though he said protesters there were ‘very peaceful,’ the Tribune reported. It said one of its photographers was pepper-sprayed by individuals upset that he was documenting their protest.

Several hundred Trump supporters also staged a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally at the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix, cheering and jeering while exhibiting a guillotine. 

‘I won’t betray my oath’: Pence publicly defies Trump’s demand to block Biden’s confirmation 

Trump told thousands of supporters just outside the White House that he wanted Pence to ‘come through’ for us and demanded that he reject electoral votes out of hand over that the president claims is ‘fraud.’

He threatened Pence saying ‘I’m not hearing good stories’ and telling him to have ‘courage’ to strike down swing states’ votes – a move which would defy the constitution.

But minutes before arriving on Capitol Hill to preside over the joint session of Congress to certify the election’s outcome, Pence bluntly told lawmakers that he would refuse to obey Trump’s orders.

Pence sent a letter to the 535 senators and representatives on Capitol Hill ahead of his presiding over the Joint Session that will certify Joe Biden’s victory.

In it, he outlined his belief in his role in the proceedings, which he notes is ‘ceremonial’ and adds that it doesn’t include the authority to ‘determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.’

Trump has tried to put the blame on Pence for his expected loss on Wednesday but the president also lacks support among the majority of senators in his own party, which dooms his efforts for a congressional overthrow of the results. 

Pence acknowledged Trump’s allegations the election was rigged, of which there has been no proof and no court has upheld, in a likely peace offering to the president.

‘I share the concerns of millions of Americans about the integrity of this election,’ he wrote. 

But he noted as vice president he does not have the power from the constitution to decide which electoral votes are counted and which are not.

‘As a student of history who loves the constitution and reveres its Framers, I do not believe that the Founds of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress and no Vice President in American history has ever asserted such authority,’ Pence noted.

He added vice presidents in the past have conducted ‘the proceedings in an orderly manner even where the count resulted in the defeat of their party or their own candidacy’.

‘It is my considered judgement that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,’ he said.

He concluded his letter with a prayer to God: ‘When the Joint Session of Congress convenes today, I will do my duty to see to it that we open the certificates of electors of the several states, we hear objections raised by Senators and Representatives, and we count the votes of the Electoral College for President and Vice President in a manner consistent with our Constitution, laws and history. So Help Me God.’  

REPUBLICANS OBJECT TO ARIZONA’S VOTES 

When the certification process got underway shortly after 1pm Wednesday, lawmakers got through Alabama and Alaska, two states that went for Trump, before the first objection was filed for Arizona.

Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, objected to his state’s Electoral College votes going to Biden and Harris. He confirmed that his objection had been signed on to by a US senator.

Democrats in the chamber audibly groaned while droves of Republicans in the chamber stood up and clapped.

The move forced Pence to order the houses out of Joint Session. The senators in the House chamber started moving back toward their side of the US Capitol. 

On the House side, during their debate on the Arizona objection, Republican lawmakers used their time to complain about the treatment of the president, particularly the impeachment process and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

They did not offer any proof of voter fraud but complained that voter laws were changed ahead of the November contest, which is not illegal.

‘The law says voter registration ends on October 5. Democrats said we don’t care what the law says they went to a court got an Obama appointed judge to extend in 18 days,’ Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally on Capitol Hill, complained of Arizona.

Many states had their voter registration deadlines extended because of the coronavirus pandemic – the extension applied to voters of both parties. Other states extended the time period allowing mail-in voting, again because of the pandemic and it applied to all voters.

Democrats argued the election was legally conducted.

‘Under some of the most trying circumstances in our history, our fellow citizens conducted a free and fair election vindicating our founders belief once again that we were capable of self government, and a peaceful transition of power,’ Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff said.

Speaker Pelosi presided over the debate. She sanitized the gavel before she used it. Pence had used it when he presided over the Joint Session.

Pelosi also reminded lawmakers that only 11 members from each party were allowed on the House floor at a time due to social distancing. She called out Republicans for having too many lawmakers on the floor.

MITCH MCCONNELL SLAMS ELECTION ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shamed Trump and his own Republican colleagues for mounting challenges to the Electoral College vote count, saying their doing so could lead to a ‘death spiral’ of American democracy – and pointing out there’s no real evidence of widespread voter fraud.

‘We’re debating a step that has never been taken in American history, whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election,’ he said on the Senate floor, after Rep Gosar and a batch of GOP senators, including Sen Ted Cruz, objected to Arizona’s Electoral College vote count.

McConnell ridiculed Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in a five-minute speech, which will be one of his last as majority leader, and which he said was about the most important vote of his career.

‘The assertions range from specific, local allegations to Constitutional arguments to sweeping conspiracy theories,’ McConnell said.

He reminded senators that he was supportive of Trump using the country’s legal system, which handed the president and his team loss after loss. And pointed out that these cases were heard by some of the ‘all-star judges whom the president himself nominated’ – including on the U.S. Supreme Court.

McConnell said that every election is plagued by some instances of vote irregularity. ‘And of course that’s unacceptable,’ he said.

The top Senate Republican also said he supported ‘strong state-led voting reforms,’ adding that he didn’t wan tto see ‘last year’s bizarre pandemic procedures’ – like mail-in ballots that gave Democrats an edge – ‘become the new norm.’

‘But my colleagues nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale, the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election,’ McConnell argued. ‘Nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break, when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence.’

He pointed out that the Constitution gives Congress a ‘limited role.’

‘We simply can’t declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids,’ McConnell said.

Twisting the knife into Trump, McConnell also pointed out that the race between Biden and Trump ‘was not unusually close.’

‘The Electoral College margin was almost identical to what it was in 2016,’ McConnell pointed out.

‘If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side our democracy would enter a death spiral,’ McConnell warned. ‘We’d never see a whole nation accept an election again.’

‘Every four years there would be a scramble for power at any cost,’ he added. 

TRUMP’S STOP THE STEAL RALLY 

This came after Trump excoriated ‘weak’ Republicans and demanded fealty from Pence to a rally crowd near the White House on Wednesday, where he demanded Pence and Congress overturn the election results that lead to his defeat.

In an extraordinary speech, Trump once again called his election ‘rigged’ just minutes before a joint meeting of Congress was to begin counting the certified electoral votes that have him losing to Joe Biden. 

Trump referred to votes that came in after 10pm election night – which consisted of in-person and mail-in ballots and denied him the lead he said he and his pollsters anticipated – as ‘these explosions of bullsh*t.’ 

Members of the crowd immediately chanted ‘Bullshi*t!’ in response. 

‘Our election was over at 10 in the evening,’ Trump said.

Trump mocked his party’s 2012 Republican presidential nominee, now-Sen. Mitt Romney, for conceded his own race back then.

‘We will never concede. It doesn’t happen,’ he said – although losing candidates have conceded for generations. ‘There’s never been anything like this. It’s a pure theft.’ 

Trump’s comments amounted to a declaration of war on elements of his party, after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani demanded ‘trial by combat’ against opponents of his claims of election fraud.

Trump spoke to a crowd of several thousand – but referred to them as consisting of ‘hundreds of thousands’ of supporters fathered on a lawn south of the White House that doesn’t hold that many.

He said his election was ‘stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and that’s what they’re doing.’

He urged his supporters to march down to the Congress, which was to commence the count at 1 pm.

‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,’ he said, speaking from behind a pane of bullet-proof material.

He turned up the heat on Pence, a potential 2024 contender who will preside over the count. His role is set in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act, and is largely ceremonial.

‘Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our Constitution,’ he said.

Trump acknowledged that he has tried to pressure Pence into rejecting votes from states he lost, quoting from a conversation he has denied happened.

‘All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to re-certify and we become president and you are the happiest people,’ he told his fans, who cheered ‘Stop the Steal!’ at times.

‘I said Mike, that doesn’t take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage. And then we’re stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that,’ he said of Biden.

Trump touted his own vote total, but denied Biden’s was real.

‘And by the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes?’ Trump asked rhetorically. ‘Does anybody believe that? He had 80 million computer votes. It’s a disgrace,’ Trump said.

His mention of the pandemic came in terms of his own race, where millions voted by mail as thousands battled infections in a year more than 300,000 Americans died of COVID-19.

‘They’ve used the pandemic as a way of defrauding the people in a proper election,’ Trump said.

‘Eight weeks. I want to go back eight weeks. Let’s go back eight weeks,’ he mused at one point, as he described a conversation with an unnamed official who told him that he would be lock to win in 2024.  

Trump repeatedly couched his demands not as an effort to overturn the votes of the people, but as a legal effort.

‘Somebody says: Well we have to obey the Constitution,’ Trump said. ‘And you are, because you’re protecting our country and you’re protecting the Constitution so you are,’ he said.

He said it would protect the country from having what he called ‘an illegitimate president.’

‘The states were defrauded. They were given false information,’ Trump claimed.

During various tangents, he complained about how he is treated on social media, such as when ‘I get a flag’ on his tweets. ‘I don’t care about Twitter, Twitter’s bad news, he said afterward.

He went after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell several times, including for not going along with his proposal to change communications laws.

‘I helped Mitch get elected,’ he said of the longtime incumbent.

‘And then all of a sudden you have something like this,’ he said, going after ‘weak Republicans’ and ‘pathetic Republicans’ – despite a top official in Georgia blaming him for the likely defeats of two Senate Republican incumbents.

He also called out Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) after her comment that failing to accept the electors certified by states would violate the Constitution.

‘The Liz Cheneys of the world, we’ve got to get rid of them,’ Trump said.

‘Brian Kemp – vote him the hell out of office please,’ Trump said of the Georgia governor.

He said Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger had ‘no clue’ what was going on, but then said ‘maybe’ he was with the other side – the Democrats.

‘I can’t believe this guy was a Republican,’ said Trump. ‘He loves recording telephone conversations,’ Trump said – mentioning a leaked call where Trump can be heard asking him to ‘find’ 11,780 votes to make him the winner.

‘People love that conversation, because it says what’s going on,’ Trump said.  

Trump also complained about the Supreme Court, which failed to take up a Texas lawsuit he sought to join, and even his former attorney general Bill Barr, who said before leaving his post there wasn’t sufficient fraud to change the outcome.

‘I’m not happy with the Supreme Court. They look to rule against me. I picked three people. I fought like hell for one in particular,’ Trump inveighed.

‘You know I read a story in one of the newspapers recently, how I control the three Supreme Court Justices. I control them. They’re puppets. I read it about Bill Barr – that he’s my personal attorney, that he’ll do anything for me.

‘But he denied pulling Barr’s strings’And I said, you know, it really is genius, because what they do is that, and it makes it really impossible for them to ever give you a victory, because all of a sudden Bill Barr changed if you hadn’t noticed. I like Bill Barr but he changed because he didn’t want to be considered my personal attorney, and the Supreme Court. They ruled against me so much you know why? Because the story is, I haven’t spoken to any of them. Any since virtually they got in, but the story is that they’re my puppet, right, that they’re puppets. And now that the only way they can get out of that – because they hate that it’s not good on the social circuit. And the only way they get out is to rule against Trump. So let’s rule against Trump and they do.’

‘You know I read a story in one of the newspapers recently, how I control the three Supreme Court Justices. I control them. They’re puppets. I read it about Bill Barr – that he’s my personal attorney, that he’ll do anything for me.’

But he denied pulling Barr’s strings’And I said, you know, it really is genius, because what they do is that, and it makes it really impossible for them to ever give you a victory, because all of a sudden Bill Barr changed if you hadn’t noticed. I like Bill Barr but he changed because he didn’t want to be considered my personal attorney, and the Supreme Court. They ruled against me so much you know why? Because the story is, I haven’t spoken to any of them. Any since virtually they got in, but the story is that they’re my puppet, right, that they’re puppets. And now that the only way they can get out of that – because they hate that it’s not good on the social circuit. And the only way they get out is to rule against Trump. So let’s rule against Trump and they do.’

Giuliani said, ‘If we’re wrong we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail. Let’s have trial by combat,’ he said, without explaining exactly what he meant by combat.

‘I’m willing to stake my reputation, the president is willing to stake his reputation on the fact that we’re going to find criminality there,’ said the former New York mayor. Trump and his allies have suffered dozens of losses in state and federal courts with suits charging election fraud.

He spoke to thousands of cheering supporters on the Ellipse south of the White House. A permit was for 30,000 people.

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., claimed there were 100,000 people there but images showed far fewer.

He bashed elected Republicans who have refused to go along with his father’s claims of fraud.

‘The people who did nothing to stop the steal — this gathering should send a message to them. This isn’t their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party. This is the Republican Party that will put America first,’ he said.

His girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, also spoke.

After claiming fraud in Trump’s election, John Eastman claimed fraud in the count Tuesday night, which allowed Rev. Raphael Warnock to be called as the winner in one runoff and has Democrat Jon Ossoff leading in another.

Explaining how the fraud he claims occurred happened, Eastman said: ‘You know the old way was to have a bunch of ballots sitting in a box under the floor … They put those ballots in a secret folder in the machines, sitting there waiting until they know how many they need … I can now in that machine match those unvoted ballots with an unvoted voter and put them together in the machine. How do we know that happened last night in real time? You saw when it went to 99 per cent of the vote total, and it stopped.’

He pointed to a point late in the vote count while counties were still tabulating votes – a version of Trump’s complaint that he led in early returns on election night in November. Last night, Republicans led until addition in-person votes came in in populous Democratic-leaning counties ‘That means they were unloading the ballots from that secret folder,’ he claimed.

At least 10 people were arrested for gun possession crimes and other violations and others were seen clashing with counter-demonstrators.

One man from North Carolina was detained after he was caught carrying a gun without a license.

The man rode into the capital on a bus which was stopped by police near Ninth Street and Constitution Avenue NW.

Police boarded the bus and confiscated a rifle and a handgun as well as a drum magazine that holds additional ammunition. 

Many in the crowd were photographed not wearing masks and gathered in tight quarters, shoulder to shoulder, despite the raging pandemic and the nationwide surge in the number of coronavirus cases.