After a whirlwind day that saw a mob of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol, which prompted the evacuation of lawmakers and a delay in the Electoral College vote count, Congress finally certified Biden’s victory as the next president of the United States.
Before the final tally in the early hours of Thursday morning that confirmed Biden’s 306 to Trump’s 232 electoral votes (Biden only needed 270 votes to be declared the winner), both the House and Senate voted to reject challenges by Republicans loyal to Trump who had raised objections to the results from Arizona and Pennsylvania, two of several battleground states that have been the target of the president’s false claims of voter fraud. Before the siege by Trump-loving goons, Republicans were expected to object to certifying votes from other states, including Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia. However, several Republicans changed their minds after the destruction and mayhem that took place in the Capitol.
“When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes,” said Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost her seat to Rev. Raphael Warnock on Tuesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “However the events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors.”
Her statements echoed many of her Republican colleagues, who mostly evaded the role they played in enabling the events that took place at the Capitol on Wednesday by supporting the president’s dangerous lies that the election was stolen from him.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been a loyal lapdog to Trump and who even enabled the president’s election fiction, finally grew a spine in the 11th hour and called on his Republican colleagues to accept the election of the Biden-Harris ticket.
“Trump and I, we had a hell of a journey,” Graham said on the Senate floor Wednesday night, the Hill reports. “I hate it being this way. Oh my god, I hate it ... but today all I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”
Sen. Mitt Romney offered his own withering rebuke to Trump and those who continued to support his lies about voter fraud.
“What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States,” said Romney, as captured by C-SPAN. “Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate and democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy.”
Sen. Cory Booker also gave an impassioned speech comparing the siege led by Trump-supporting rioters to the War of 1812.
“The shame of this day is it’s being aided and abetted by good Americans who are falling prey, who are choosing Trump over truth,” said Booker. “I saw the flag of the Confederacy there. What will we do? How will we confront this shame?”
How, indeed.
Up next is Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, and let’s hope that law enforcement officials will be better prepared to deal with the Trump supporters who can’t seem to accept that they voted for a loser.