Congress has formally certified Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the US election, leaving the outgoing President with no remaining path to dispute the result.
Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the electoral vote count in his role as President of the Senate today, declared Mr Biden the winner shortly after 3:30am.
“The votes for president of the United States are as follows: Joseph R. Biden Jr of the state of Delaware has received 306 votes. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 232 votes,” Mr Pence said.
A short time later, Mr Trump issued a statement through his aide Dan Scavino, promising an “orderly transition”.
“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,” he said.
“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!”
So, after all the bluster of the last two months, more than 60 lawsuits, and an assault on the Capitol itself, Mr Trump did not manage to budge a single electoral vote.
Its jobs done, the joint session dissolved with a weary round of applause.
It ended a day of high drama in the American capital. Egged on by the President’s demand that Congress overturn Mr Biden’s win, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building during the count, overwhelming police and forcing their way inside.
A full lockdown was imposed, the members of Congress were evacuated, and a woman was shot dead in the carnage. Three others died on the Capitol grounds due to “medical emergencies” – we have yet to learn more details.
Law enforcement eventually regained control of the building, and at 8pm local time, Congress resumed its business.
Some Republicans raised objections to the electoral college results, but they had nowhere near enough numbers in either chamber of Congress to throw them out.
Read on for the latest updates, and to see how the longest of days in Washington D.C. unfolded.
Live Updates
Vice President Mike Pence was a central figure in yesterday’s events.
Mr Pence presided over the joint session of Congress in his role as President of the Senate, and defied pressure from Donald Trump to unilaterally overturn the electoral college results (something he couldn’t legally do anyway).
According to Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, the Vice President was absolutely furious at his boss yesterday.
“I’ve known Mike Pence forever,” Mr Inhofe told Tulsa World.
“I have never seen Pence as angry as he was today.
“I had a long conversation with him. He said, ‘After all the things I’ve done for (Trump).'”
Shortly before the counting started yesterday, Mr Pence released a letter explaining why he couldn’t comply with the President’s demands.
“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Mr Pence wrote.
That didn’t stop Mr Trump from pressuring him again during a political rally near the White House.
“I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election,” Mr Trump said.
“All he has to do – this is from the number one, or certainly one of the top constitutional lawyers in this country – he has the absolute right to do it. We’re supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our Constitution.
“States want to revote. The states got defrauded, they were given false information, they voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back.
“All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify. And we become president.”
By all accounts, this disagreement between the President and his deputy had been playing out in private for days before Mr Pence went public with his letter.
Former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, who now co-hosts the show Morning Joe on MSNBC, embarked on … quite the rant this morning.
For starters, Mr Scarborough casually suggested the President “should be arrested today”.
“I’ve got no questions for Donald Trump. He’s an insurrectionist,” he said.
“He should be sent to jail today for insurrection against the United States of America.”
So there’s that.
He also tore into Capitol Police, wondering why they weren’t “better prepared” for the onslaught of Mr Trump’s supporters yesterday.
“Yesterday, we see them patting terrorists on the back, and we see them taking selfies with people who are committing an insurrection against the United States,” said Mr Scarborough.
“Politely opening the door for terrorists who had scrawled on the door ‘murder the media’. Who had broken through this glass. Letting them just walk through, letting these Trump supporters walk through freely.
“And politely opening doors! To the insurrectionists.”
He said there should be an investigation.
“How many of these Capitol Hill cops are members of Donald Trump’s cult? How many? How many allowed this to happen?” he said.
WATCH: @JoeNBC slams mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.https://t.co/NCAch8wKUP
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 7, 2021
Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has resigned from his current role as a special envoy to Northern Ireland.
“I called Mike Pompeo (the Secretary of State) last night to let him know I was resigning. I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mr Mulvaney told CNBC.
“Those who choose to stay – and I have talked with some of them – are choosing to stay because they’re worried the President might put someone worse in.”
Another former chief of staff, General John Kelly, issued a scathing assessment of Mr Trump’s character yesterday.
“We need to look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office in our land,” Gen Kelly said.
“At the office seeker’s character, at their morals, at their ethical record, their integrity, their honesty, their flaws, what they have said about women and minorities, why they are seeking office in the first place, and only then consider the policies they espouse.”
New Hampshire Representative Annie Kuster has described the terrifying moment rioters stormed the US Capitol.
“I was fearful for my life, and trying to protect my colleagues,” the New Hamphire Democrat told CNN’s New Day.
She said that those attending the joint session of Congress were initially locked in after proceedings were halted before they were told to evacuate.
Ms Kuster said attendees were told to put on the gas masks stored under their seats and she had to scramble across the balcony.
As she left, she saw the door being barricaded and within minutes, the rioters breached the chamber. Shortly afterwards, she said, she heard a shot ring out.
“I was frightened that it would be a mass casualty incident,” she said.
“I was fearful for my life, and trying to protect my colleagues.”@RepAnnieKuster describes what it was like when pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol.
“…these were terrorists. These were thugs. These were dangerous people.”https://t.co/SGWkw8sZXr pic.twitter.com/xcTinIX3DB
— New Day (@NewDay) January 7, 2021
Donald Trump’s former White House Communications director Anthony Scaramucci has called the riot in Washington, DC, “a predictable tragedy.”
The Trump critic said it was “a sad day for the United States”, in an interview on BBC Radio Five Live.
Scaramucci famously served just 11 days in the communications job before he was sensationally fired.
Meanwhile, Trump loyalist and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin described the violence at the US Capitol Wednesday as “completely unacceptable”, speaking from Israel where he was meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Leaders from across the world have expressed sadness at the attack on the heart of US democracy.
“A basic rule of democracy is after the election there are winners and losers,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“I regret very much that President Trump did not admit defeat in November and again yesterday.”
Donald Trump has responded to the result – though as he can’t currently use his own Twitter account, he’s had to release a statement through aide Dan Scavino.
“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,” Mr Trump said.
“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!”
That is as close to a concession as we’re going to get.
Thanks for sticking it out with me for however many hours this blog has been going. I’m off to bed, but we’ll do this again tomorrow.
In the meantime, the rest of the team will keep you up to date with any major developments from the US.
With all the electoral votes counted, Vice President Mike Pence officially confirmed Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
“The votes for president of the United States are as follows: Joseph R. Biden Jr of the state of Delaware has received 306 votes. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 232 votes,” Mr Pence declared.
So, after all the bluster of the last two months, more than 60 lawsuits, and an assault on the Capitol itself, Mr Trump did not manage to budge a single electoral vote.
Its jobs done, the joint session dissolved with a weary round of applause.
It has been smooth sailing through the last batch of states so far, and at 3.32am in Washington D.C., Joe Biden officially passed the 270 electoral vote threshold he needed to become president.
Vermont’s three votes are what pushed him over the top.
A couple of states are still to come, but it’s a done deal now – Congress has certified Mr Biden’s victory and he will be inaugurated on January 20.
At last, we’re under way again.
Vice President Pence promptly dismissed the objection to Pennsylvania’s results, meaning its 20 electoral votes have now formally gone to Joe Biden.
Rhode Island is next up, and then we’ll run through the remainder of the alphabet.
The House of Representatives has shot down the Pennsylvania objection 282-138, which means we can get back to counting the electoral votes in a few minutes, when the joint session resumes.
Shouldn’t be much longer now. It’s 3.11am.
Those 138 Republican votes, by the way, represent almost two-thirds of the party’s caucus.
