Congress to resume Electoral College certification hours after violent incursion at U.S. Capitol

(The Center Square) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would resume its joint session Wednesday night as soon as lawmakers are given the all-clear to do so after the violent incursion by protesters supporting President Donald Trump.

House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the session was expected to resume at 8 p.m. EST.

The House of Representatives and the Senate were meeting separately Wednesday afternoon to consider a challenge to Arizona’s electoral vote results when they were forced out of their respective chambers as protesters stormed the building.

By about 5 p.m. EST, the Capitol building reportedly had been cleared of those who had forced their way in. About 90 minutes later, Pelosi announced lawmakers would reconvene to confirm the results of the Electoral College and declare President-elect Joe Biden to be the next president.

“[A]fter calls to the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Vice President, we have decided we should proceed tonight at the Capitol once it is cleared for use,” Pelosi said in a statement.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, noted legislators already had prepared to work late into the night to accommodate the anticipated challenges to the slates of electors for six states. If a representative and a senator each sign on to challenge a given state’s results, the two chambers are obliged to exit the joint session called to ratify the results and go to their respective chambers for up to two hours of debate.

Only if both chambers agree to uphold a challenge would the electors for a state be thrown out, an unlikely prospect with Democrats controlling the House and eager to see their party’s nominee inaugurated Jan. 20.

Pelosi blamed Trump for the violence at the Capitol, saying it was “anointed at the highest level of government.”

“We now will be part of history, as such a shameful picture of our country was put out to the world, instigated at the highest level,” she said.

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