WASHINGTON — After a day of anarchy overwhelmed the U.S. Capitol with a shocking burst of violence and chaos by supporters of President Donald Trump, Sen. Mitch McConnell gaveled the U.S. Senate back into session Wednesday evening, determined to finish the job of certifying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
“The United States Senate will not be intimidated,” McConnell declared nearly seven hours after he made his first remarks on the floor.
It was McConnell’s first appearance and public comments since he and the majority of congressional lawmakers in the Capitol were whisked into undisclosed secure locations on Wednesday afternoon as a mob stormed the building. They would remain there for hours as law enforcement, and eventually the U.S. National Guard, worked to clear the U.S. Capitol of the thousands of rioters who breached security.
“They tried to disrupt our democracy, they failed,” McConnell declared. “This failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic.”
He added, “Criminal behavior will never dominate the U.S. Congress. This institution is resilient.”
Hours earlier, McConnell’s first speech of the day was used to do something he’s avoided for most of the past four years: Repudiate Trump’s false claims.
“We cannot simply declare ourselves a national Board of Elections on steroids,” he said from the Senate floor. “The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever.”
But just minutes after he finished rejecting Trump’s false contention that the 2020 election had been stolen, the most radical strains of Trumpism had begun to overtake the institution where McConnell has forged his storied 36-year career. A swarm of pro-Trump agitators, who had come to Washington at the behest of a president unable to accept his defeat, had crashed the gates literally.
McConnell’s initial speech appeared intended to nudge his Republican caucus toward the reality of a President-elect Joe Biden and away from the conspiracy theories that some have embraced in their bids to show loyalty to Trump.
But Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a former bitter rival turned ally of Trump who harbors 2024 presidential aspirations, ignored McConnell’s advice and began to lead the effort to question Arizona’s electoral vote allocation to Biden.
That’s when the chaos ensued.
With a mob roaming the Capitol facility, senators were ordered off the upper chamber’s floor.
Doug Andres, a press aide to McConnell, was stuck in a room across from the senator’s office for about 20 minutes, while the mob banged on the door. They were unable to break in, according to a pool report from Capitol Hill.
In a statement, Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, described the events as “tragic, outrageous and devastating.”
Appearing on Fox News Wednesday evening, Sen. Rand Paul said it was a mistake for people to believe Congress could overturn the will of the Electoral College once states have already certified their results.
Kentucky’s junior senator suggested the better approach would be to lobby state legislatures to change their specific election laws, an endeavor he plans to embark on over the next two years.
Paul also warned conservatives that they would be placed at political disadvantage if the Electoral College was replaced by a popular vote to determine the presidency.
“Conservatives will never win again in this country,” Paul said on Fox. “We shouldn’t be trashing the very institution that has been the way we win the presidency. The only way we’ve been winning the presidency recently is through the Electoral College.”
McConnell’s remarks from earlier in the day are now likely to be forgotten, lost in an unprecedented assault on the democratic process.
McConnell took to the chamber’s floor on Wednesday to declare a reality still unaccepted by many in his party: That Trump lost his reelection bid and it wasn’t “unusually close.”
McConnell refuted Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud, citing the dozens of court cases that have been rejected by judges, many of whom Trump appointed.
The majority leader’s remarks were delivered at the start of a special joint session of Congress meant to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. What is usually a routine and unremarkable affair that garners little attention took on a circus quality in Washington, with thousands of Trump supporters parading around the White House and U.S. Capitol. Earlier in the day, the president addressed the gathering and lambasted McConnell for a lack of courage to join the rogue challenge.
“You better start looking at your leadership, cause your leadership has led you down the tubes,” Trump told a crowd shortly before the congressional session convened.
But McConnell kicked off the Senate’s proceedings by attempting to alert his caucus of the potential long-term damage they would inflict by casting aspersions about an election result that has been settled.
“Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale — the massive scale that would’ve tipped the entire election. Nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence,” McConnell said.
“If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, Our democracy would enter a death spiral. We’d never see the whole nation accept an election again,” McConnell said.
McConnell did not address Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia, which will likely make him minority leader for at least the next two years. Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one contest and Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican Sen. David Perdue in the second race, according to The Associated Press.
The last time there was a formal objection to an electoral vote count was in 2005, after President George W. Bush defeated John Kerry for a second term. California Sen. Barbara Boxer joined Ohio Rep. Tubbs Jones to contest Ohio’s electoral votes being allocated to Bush. Their objection failed by a Senate vote of 74-1.
