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'It's
insurrection,'
Biden
says, as
Trump
supporters
storm
U.S.
Capitol
Patricia
Zengerle,
Jonathan
Landay
reuters.com
WASHINGTON
- With
drawn
guns and
teargas,
police
sought
to clear
the U.S.
Capitol
building
of
hundreds
of
protesters
who
stormed
the
building
and
sought
to force
Congress
to undo
President
Donald
Trump’s
election
loss on
Wednesday
as
lawmakers
convened
to
certify
President-elect
Joe
Biden’s
victory.
Members
of the
House of
Representatives
and the
Senate
were
evacuated
after
pro-Trump
protesters
surged
through
the
halls of
Congress,
forcing
both
chambers
to
suspend
deliberations.
One
protester
occupied
the
Senate
dais and
yelled,
“Trump
won that
election.”
Protesters
overturned
barricades
and
clashed
with
police
as
thousands
descended
on the
Capitol
grounds.
Biden, a
Democrat
who
defeated
the
Republican
president
in the
Nov. 3
election
and is
due to
take
office
on Jan.
20, said
the
activity
of the
protesters
“borders
on
sedition.”
The
former
vice
president
said
that for
demonstrators
to storm
the
Capitol,
smash
windows,
occupy
offices,
invade
the
halls of
Congress
and
threaten
the
safety
of duly
elected
officials:
“It’s
not a
protest,
it’s
insurrection.”
“I
call on
this mob
to pull
back and
allow
the work
of
democracy
to go
forward,”
Biden
added,
urging
Trump to
go on
national
television
to
demand
“an end
to this
siege.”
In a
video
posted
to
Twitter,
Trump
repeated
his
false
claims
about
election
fraud
but
urged
the
protesters
to
leave.
“You
have to
go home
now, we
have to
have
peace,”
he said.
Video
showed
protesters
breaking
windows
and
police
deploying
teargas
inside
the
building.
Local
media
reported
that one
person
had been
shot and
video
showed a
person
being
wheeled
from the
building
on a
stretcher.
Vice
President
Mike
Pence,
who had
presided
over the
joint
session
of
Congress,
had
already
been
escorted
from the
Senate.
The
chaotic
scenes
unfolded
after
Trump,
who
before
the
election
refused
to
commit
to a
peaceful
transfer
of power
if he
lost,
addressed
thousands
of
protesters,
repeating
unfounded
claims
that the
contest
was
stolen
from him
due to
widespread
election
fraud
and
irregularities.
Lawmakers
had been
debating
a
last-ditch
effort
by
pro-Trump
lawmakers
to
challenge
the
results,
an
effort
that was
unlikely
to
succeed.
Critics
had
called
the
effort
by the
Republican
lawmakers
an
attack
on
American
democracy
and the
rule of
law and
an
attempted
legislative
coup.
The
top two
Democrats
in
Congress,
House
Speaker
Nancy
Pelosi
and
Senator
Chuck
Schumer,
called
on Trump
to
demand
that all
the
protesters
leave
the
Capitol
and its
grounds
immediately.
Capitol
Police
told
lawmakers
in the
House
chamber
to take
gas
masks
from
beneath
their
seats
and
prepare
to put
them on.
Officers
at the
front
door of
the
House
chamber
had
their
guns
drawn as
someone
attempted
to enter
the
chamber.
Officers
ordered
people
in the
chamber
to drop
to the
floor
for
their
safety.
Several
hundred
House
members,
staff
and
press
were
evacuated
to an
undisclosed
location
and were
told not
to
leave.
Election
officials
of both
parties
and
independent
observers
have
said
there
was no
significant
fraud in
the Nov.
3
contest,
which
Biden
won by
more
than 7
million
votes in
the
national
popular
vote.
Weeks
have
passed
since
the
states
completed
certifying
that
Biden, a
Democrat,
won the
election
by 306
Electoral
College
votes to
Trump’s
232.
Trump’s
extraordinary
challenges
to
Biden’s
victory
have
been
rejected
by
courts
across
the
country.
‘WE
WILL NOT
TAKE IT’
Trump
had
pressed
Pence to
throw
out
election
results
in
states
the
president
narrowly
lost,
though
Pence
has no
authority
to do
so.
“Our
country
has had
enough
and we
will not
take it
any
more,”
Trump
said at
the
rally.
The
certification
in
Congress,
normally
a
formality,
had been
expected
to
stretch
for
several
hours as
some
Republican
lawmakers
mounted
an
effort
to
reject
some
state
tallies,
starting
with
Arizona.
Republicans
and
Democrats,
who had
been
bitterly
divided
over
that
effort,
both
called
on
protesters
to stand
down.
“This is
un-American
and this
has to
stop,”
said
House
Republican
Leader
Kevin
McCarthy,
a Trump
ally who
supported
the
Republican
effort
to
challenge
the
results.
That
attempt
was
unlikely
to
succeed,
as even
many
Republicans
opposed
it.
“If
this
election
were
overturned
by mere
allegations
from the
losing
side,
our
democracy
would
enter a
death
spiral,”
said
Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell,
who
helped
give
Trump
some of
his
biggest
accomplishments.
Schumer
called
the
challenges
in
Congress
by Trump
allies
“an
attempted
coup”
and
said,
“The
Congress
does not
determine
the
outcome
of an
election.
The
people
do.”
Outside
the
Capitol,
members
of
militia
groups
and
far-right
groups,
some in
body
armor,
mingled
with the
crowds.
Washington
Mayor
Muriel
Bowser
ordered
a
citywide
curfew
starting
at 6
p.m.
(2300
GMT).
Pence
rebuffed
Trump’s
demand
that he
reject
state
electoral
votes on
the same
day
Trump’s
fellow
Republicans
were
poised
to lose
their
majority
in the
Senate.
“We
will
never
give
up,”
Trump
earlier
told
thousands
of
cheering
supporters
on a
grassy
expanse
near the
White
House
called
the
Ellipse.
“We will
never
concede.
It
doesn’t
happen.
You
don’t
concede
when
there’s
theft
involved.”
“Mike
Pence, I
hope
you’re
going to
stand up
for the
good of
our
Constitution
and the
good of
our
country.
And if
you’re
not, I’m
going to
be very
disappointed
in you,”
Trump
said.
In a
statement,
Pence
said he
shares
the
concerns
about
the
“integrity”
of the
election
but that
is not
correct
that he
should
be able
to
accept
or
reject
electoral
votes
unilaterally.
The
U.S.
Constitution
does not
give
Pence
the
power to
unilaterally
overturn
the
results
of the
election.
The
protests
drew
international
condemnation,
with
German
Foreign
Minister
Heiko
Maas
said
democracy’s
enemies
would be
cheered
by
scenes
of
violence
at the
U.S.
Capitol.
“Trump
and his
supporters
must
accept
the
decision
of
American
voters
at last
and stop
trampling
on
democracy,”
Maas
said.
Additional
reporting
by Susan
Cornwell,
Susan
Heavey,
Richard
Cowan
and Tim
Ahmann;
Writing
by Andy
Sullivan;
Editing
by Scott
Malone
and Will
Dunham
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