Joe Biden has been certified as the winner of the U.S. 2020 presidential election by the United States Congress, hours after President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election result.
Mike Pence, US Vice President, started the resumed session on Wednesday evening, in which lawmakers counted and confirmed electoral votes, saying it had been a “dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”
Move by some Republican lawmakers’ objections to overturn the result in Arizona and Pennsylvania were rejected with the session certified Biden’s 306 votes to Trump’s 232.
Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators, on Wednesday, breached security and scaled the steps of the building where lawmakers were due to certify president-elect Joe Biden’s win in the November election.
Trump, hours earlier, riled up his supporters repeating allegations of election fraud, and encouraged them to march to the Capitol.
The Senate and House of Representatives abruptly called off their sessions, where they had been debating Republican challenges to results in U.S. states that Biden won, as the building went into lockdown.
Congress, however, reconvened in the evening, with senators from both sides of the aisle condemning the violence and vowing to complete the certification process.
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In the meantime, the incumbent has finally accepted defeat and pledged to transfer power to President-elect, Joe Biden, in an orderly manner.
In a statement President Trump, following the electoral certification, said, even though he disagrees with the outcome of the election, he would hand over power in an orderly manner.
The statement released by White House’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, quotes Trump as saying:
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.
