Pence affirms Biden as winner, formalizing electoral count after day of riots at Capitol; Trump prepares for exit Ledyard King, Maureen Groppe, Nicholas Wu, Bart Jansen, Courtney Subramanian and Joey Garrison, USA TODAY
Watch as Congress certifies Joe Biden s presidential victory
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Pence officially declared Biden the winner at 3:41 a.m. EST. Not long after, Trump released a statement through a White House social media account, acknowledging Biden s win, a first. 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,” Trump s statement said.
Senate meets to certify the Electoral College vote.
Noting that the presidential election was not unusually close, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged his colleagues not to object to the electoral vote count.
The Senate leader, between a series of emotional remarks, said that the vote to certify the Electoral College results was the most important vote in his 36 years in office. Our nation deserves a lot better than this, the Kentucky Republican said in opening remarks.
At least 13 Republican senators have said they will object to the results favoring President-elect Joe Biden in some fashion.
McConnell noted that every election features some illegality, which he called unacceptable. He said he supported state-led voting reforms and said that pandemic voting procedures must not become the new norm.
President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the US presidential election result is going before Congress as legislators convene for a joint session to confirm the Electoral College vote won by Joe Biden.
The typically routine proceeding will be anything but, a political confrontation unseen since the aftermath of the Civil War as Mr Trump mounts a desperate effort stay in office.
The president’s Republican allies in the House and Senate plan to object to the election results, heeding supporters’ plea to “fight for Trump” as he stages a rally outside the White House.
The longshot effort is all but certain to fail, defeated by bipartisan majorities in Congress prepared to accept the results.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
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Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is among the Republican lawmakers planning to object to Congress tally of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
A significant share of Republicans plan to object to the Electoral College vote results, slowing down the inevitable that Joe Biden will be the next president.
Their objections stem from false allegations of widespread voter fraud in an election that experts say went smoothly and the results of which all 50 states and the District of Columbia have certified. President Trump has continued to push conspiracy theories of irregularities and has called on Republicans including his own vice president to challenge the results.