IN the small hours of Thursday, Jan. 7, United States Vice President Mike Pence announced that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have won the presidency and vice presidency after Congress resumed the counting of Electoral College votes.
As expected, Biden won over Trump in the Electoral College 306-232.
The count was certified just after 3:40 a.m. The process of certifying electoral college votes is a standard formality of any election, but the count was wildly disrupted after a vicious mob of Trump-supporting rioters stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to interrupt the count on Wednesday, Jan. 6.
The chaotic demonstration — which left four dead and many more injured — was the culmination of the effort to undermine the electoral process, egged on by President Donald Trump himself since Nov. 7 when media outlets began calling the election for Biden. Republicans and Democrats alike rebuked the riot, decrying the disruption of a standard constitutional practice.
“We condemn the violence that took place here in the strongest possible terms,” Pence said in his own written remarks before resuming the count on Wednesday night. “To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today: you did not win. Violence never wins.”
Previously, Trump demanded that Pence block the congressional confirmation of Biden’s win but Pence said in a letter sent early on Wednesday (before the riot) that a vice president does not have the power to reject Electoral College votes.
Trump and his supporters, since November, have claimed that the Nov. 3 election was corrupted by massive voter fraud, but have provided no evidence of the claim.
“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,” Pence wrote in his letter to Congress on Wednesday morning.
Following the certification, Trump acknowledged Biden’s win for the first time and said there would be 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,” the outgoing president said in a statement.
