Democratic House sinks GOP objection to Arizona’s Electoral College vote for Biden

The Democratic-controlled House has rejected Republicans’ objection to Arizona’s Electoral College votes for Joe Biden, putting Congress one step closer to certifying his 306-232 victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

While more than half of the Republicans in the chamber, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, voted in favour of nullifying Mr Biden’s victory in the state, the overall vote failed 121-303.

The GOP’s failed challenge to the Arizona results was the first of five such manouevres to scrap the ballots in individual states that broke for Mr Biden, which would pave the way for Mr Trump to be president for four more years.

That will not happen. Democrats control the House, and most Senate Republicans are opposed to the plan from Mr Trump’s loyalists to swing the presidency away Mr Biden.

The same objection to Arizona’s results failed in the Senate by a vote of 94-6.

Congress’ resumption of the electoral certification process comes after a day of violence and bloodshed on Capitol Hill that is unprecedented in modern times.

Reconvening the chamber on Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a warning to the pro-Trump rioters who ran roughshod over US Capitol Police and breached the halls of Congress earlier in the day.

“To those who strove to deter us from our responsibility, you have failed.  To those who engaged in the gleeful desecration of this, our temple of democracy – American democracy – justice will be done,” she said.

At least one woman was shot and killed and several USCP officers were injured amid the mayhem on Wednesday.

For minutes-long stretches, rioters filed unchecked through the Capitol corridors toting Trump 2020 flags, “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, and other banners linked to the alt-right movement that is the violent bedrock of Mr Trump’s most ardent support in this country.

They stole podiums from the House and Senate floor and romped through the upper-level galleries of the House chamber where congressional family members and guests of honour sit for the president’s annual “State of the Union” address. They pilfered congressional leaders’ mail as souvenirs of their illegal blitz through the Capitol.

At one point, a bearded rioter in a black and red ski cap ascended the dais at the head of the Senate chamber, climbed into the presiding officer’s chair, and exclaimed, “Trump won that election!”

Just hours later, from that same burgundy leather chair, Mr Pence gaveled the Senate back into session to resume the Electoral College vote count, lamenting the “dark day” in the nation’s capital.

Another rioter left a menacing note on the speaker’s desk: “We will not back down,” he wrote with a red Sharpie in all capital letters on a manilla folder.

Law enforcement officers eventually deployed tear gas to disperse the rioters. The National Guard, agents from the FBI and US Secret Service, and scores of local police units from DC and several surrounding cities in Virginia and Maryland arrived in the late afternoon with anti-riot gear to turn back the thousands of Trump supporters and clear the Capitol. 

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser instituted a 6pm curfew for the city, to mixed results.

Standoffs between rioters and the National Guard continued outside the Capitol well past curfew, although law enforcement was able to re-establish and secure the perimeter.

The House reconvened at 9pm, with plans to work through the evening until Mr Biden’s win is certified.

The Republicans in the chamber who have spearheaded the doomed-to-fail ploy to take the election from Mr Biden did not appear ready to withdraw their objections to the Electoral College vote count despite Wednesday’s riots.

After failing with Arizona, they have four more states to go: Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks refused to back down from his disproven claims that Mr Biden somehow “stole” the 2020 election from Mr Trump.

In a speech on the House floor shortly before 10pm on the East Coast, Mr Brooks made the absurd — and categorically false — claim that as many as 1m “illegal aliens” had cast votes for Mr Biden in exchange for “promised amnesty.”

Some Republicans, however, have backed away from the objections.

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, one of Mr Trump’s top congressional allies during his impeachment in 2019, voted against the GOP objection in Arizona. Earlier in the day she had supported it. That was before the insurrection.