The US Senate suddenly recessed on Wednesday after protesters incited by President Donald Trump invaded the Capitol.
According to NBC, Vice President Mike Pence was ushered quickly out of the Senate chamber as it recessed and the debate between senators had to stop mid-speech. The House also recessed.
Pro-Trump demonstrators breached the barricades and crowded on the Capitol steps, which is normally only accessible to lawmakers. People jumped the barricades surrounding the Capitol and police began running around the hallways and telling people to get away from the windows.
A police officer on the third floor began shouting that protesters had got inside the building and that people should take shelter.
Senators were locked inside their chamber on the second floor of the Capitol building and protesters wearing Trump “Make America Great Again” hats and carrying flags were seen gathering outside the chamber doors.
“Immediately seek shelter in the closest office,” an announcement over a loudspeaker said across the Capitol, which told people to lock doors as well. “Remain quiet and await further directions.”
Earlier on Wednesday, President Trump told a rally of his supporters outside the White House that he would never concede that he lost the election, as Congress readied to certify Joe Biden’s victory.
“I will never give up. We will never concede,” Trump told the cheering crowd. “We will stop the steal.”
Trump addressed thousands of supporters Wednesday in Washington, insisting he will “never concede” as lawmakers gather on Capitol Hill to certify the election of Joe Biden as America’s next president.
Speaking on stage with the White House as a backdrop, Trump repeated his false claims that November’s election was “stolen” and that he won in a “landslide.” Along with the “radical left Democrats,” Trump said the “fake news media” used “the China virus” — referring to the COVID-19 pandemic — as cover to “steal the election.”
Trump also called on Vice President Mike Pence to “do the right thing” as he presides over the certification of the electoral vote in a largely ceremonial role late Wednesday, two weeks before Biden’s inauguration.
Trump falsely insisted that “All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.”
Trump’s supporters, including some groups that clashed with police, started gathering in Washington on Tuesday night.
Authorities said they arrested at least six people on charges that included weapons and ammunition possession, assaulting a police officer and possessing a stun gun.
Washington’s streets were shut down, and Mayor Muriel Bowser called in the National Guard, fearing a repeat of sometimes-violent confrontations between protest groups the city experienced last year.
Downtown shops have been boarded up, and National Guard members assisted District of Columbia and National Park police in controlling crowds Wednesday.
Bowser and politicians in neighboring Maryland and Virginia urged residents to stay home Wednesday and avoid counter protests.
The election certification, usually a routine and ceremonial function that is the final step after the Electoral College officially elected Biden on December 14, has turned into a litmus test of Republican lawmakers’ loyalty to Trump. More than 100 Trump loyalists in Congress were set to challenge Biden’s certification.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Mike Pence, in defiance of President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that he will not intervene to stop the certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
“The Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence said in a statement released as a joint session of Congress began to certify the Electoral College votes from the November 3 election.
The statement was released as Trump urged Pence at a rally in Washington to decline to certify the Electoral College results.
