Congress certifies Biden’s victory after violent disruption of session
The US Congress has certified Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, hours after Trump supporters stormed the building in an attack that saw four people dead.
.Lawmakers resumed the session after police managed to clear the mob, believed to have been emboldened by President Trump in a bid to overturn his defeat.
After objections by some Republican lawmakers to overturn the result in Arizona and Pennsylvania were rejected, Congress formally certified the final electoral college vote at about 03:30 local time, with Biden receiving 306 votes to Trump’s 232.
Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed Thursday by a joint session presided over by Vice-President Mike Pence. In declaring the final vote totals, Mr Pence said “this shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice-president of the United States.”
The certification now clears the way for Biden to be sworn in on 20 January as the 46th president of the United States of America.
Shortly afterwards Trump said in a statement: “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.”
Wednesday’s chaotic scenes followed months of escalating rhetoric from Trump and some Republican allies that sought to undermine the result of the 3 November election. The invasion of the Capitol by the president’s supporters, some armed was an event without precedent in modern American history.
The rampage is not unconnected with the victory on Tuesday of two Democrats who won Senate seats in elections in Georgia, which shifted the balance of Congress to their party’s effective political control. This major political victory will ease the passage of Biden’s agenda after he is inaugurated.