President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed early Thursday morning in a joint session of Congress, but not before a historic interruption by violent protesters that disrupted the counting of Electoral College votes for six hours.
Biden won 306 Electoral College votes, 36 more than needed to become president. He will be sworn in January 20. Sen. Kamala Harris will also be sworn in as vice president.
Meanwhile, exactly two months after Biden was named the projected winner based on election results, through a spokesperson, President Donald Trump conceded that he would be leaving office. Trump's acknowledgment comes as a number of staffers quit on Wednesday due to the unrest at the Capitol. Also, multiple outlets have reported that several members of the Cabinet have discussed invoking the 25th amendment in an effort to remove Trump from power before January 20.
“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 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!”
Trump's statement came via spokesperson Dan Scavino, as the president's Twitter account was locked on Wednesday.
Amid the chaos, the Senate and House both rejected objections to the electoral count of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
President Donald Trump rallied supporters before the joint session of Congress. His supporters then marched to the Capitol and overwhelmed law enforcement, forcing members of Congress to flee House and Senate chambers.
Meanwhile, Trump condemned Vice President Mike Pence for not intervening to alter the count of the electors. Pence led the counts as president of the Senate.
When members returned to their chambers, the tenor of many members of Congress changed, with a number of US Senators who had been planning to object to the count from six battleground states dropping their objections following the violent protests.
One of those who dropped her objection was Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Georgia. Loeffler was defeated on Tuesday in a runoff special election to Senator-elect Raphael Warnock.
“When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes,” Loeffler said. “However, the events that transpired today forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object the certification of these electors. The violence, the lawlessness and the siege of the halls of Congress are abhorrent and stand a direct attack on the very institution my objection was intended to protect, the sanctity of the American democratic process. And I thank law enforcement for keeping us safe.”
While a large group of GOP representatives objected to counting the electors from Georgia, Michigan Nevada and Wisconsin, their objections were not considered, as no members of the US Senate joined their protests.
