Consider This from NPR - Trump Supporters Storm U.S. Capitol, Halting Final Count Of Biden Votes

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

A joint session of Congress to formally affirm the results of the 2020 presidential election was just getting started on Wednesday when a group of Republicans from the House and the Senate went on record objecting to election results in swing states.The first objection triggered a debate period with each chamber having hours to deliberate. But those sessions were halted as a mob of Pro-Trump extremists stormed the Capitol grounds and sent the entire complex into a lockdown.For more on what happened in Washington, D.C., NPR's congressional correspondent Sue Davis, spoke to All Things Considered hosts Ailsa Chang and Mary Louise Kelly. The bottom line: Joe Biden will be inaugurated in 14 days. And it looks like he'll take office with a Democratic-controlled Senate.Rev. Raphael Warnock spoke with NPR's Noel King after defeating Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one of Georgia's runoff elections, according to the Associated Press. Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican Sen. David Perdue in the second Georgia Senate runoff, according to an AP race call.It looks like what helped put the Democrats over the top was Black voter turnout. LaTosha Brown is co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a Georgia group that helped lead get-out-the-vote efforts there. She spoke with NPR about where the fight goes next.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Madam Speaker, members of Congress. It's Wednesday afternoon. Here's how today's joint session of Congress formally affirming the results of the 2020 election looked like it was going to go. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of Alabama? The joint session is ceremonial. Hearing none. It usually takes about half an hour. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of Alaska? But as of Wednesday afternoon. Hearing none. Usually takes about half an hour. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of Alaska?

But as of Wednesday afternoon, the process was just getting started. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of Arizona that the teller has verified appears to be regular, informed, and authentic? And a group of Republicans from the House and Senate went on record objecting to election results in swing states. I rise up for myself and 60 of my colleagues to object to the counting of the electoral ballots from Arizona. Results that have been upheld by the courts.

Results that have, at this point, been certified in all 50 states. Each objection triggers debate. Each house will deliberate separately on the pending objection. For hours. The Senate will deliberate separately on the pending objection. For hours. The Senate will now retire to its chamber. And here's where things went off the rails. Let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all.

As both houses retired to their chambers for debate, Trump supporters who had gathered in Washington, D.C. to protest the election and hear a speech from the president stormed the grounds of the U. D.C. to protest the election and hear a speech from the president stormed the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. That was outside. Inside, lawmakers were urged to shelter in place. Everybody, lead to...

Get prepared to... Get down under your chairs if necessary. So we have folks entering the rotunda and coming down this way. So we'll update you as soon as we can, but just be prepared. Both sessions of debate were halted. The complex was put into lockdown. And as of right now, 3 p.m. Eastern Time in Washington, D.C., we don't know what will happen next. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Adi Cornish. It's Wednesday, January 6th. This message comes from NPR sponsor, BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers licensed professional counselors who specialize in issues such as isolation, depression, stress, anxiety, and more. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment

when you need professional help. Get help at your own time and your own pace. Schedule secure video or phone sessions, plus chat and text with your therapist. Visit betterhelp.com slash consider to learn more and get 10% off your first month. Life Kit is rethinking New Year's resolutions. All this January, we're thinking about both really big and really small changes. If you're wanting to change up your life and start fresh,

we've got you covered. If you're looking to just make your home a little nicer, we got you there too. Listen now to the Life Kit podcast from NPR. It's Consider This from NPR. Wednesday started with uncertainty about what Vice President Mike Pence would do. The Constitution spells out a role for the Vice President to preside over the joint session of Congress affirming the Electoral College vote. What the Vice President can't do is stop it.

And Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now. In his speech Wednesday, President Trump repeatedly urged the vice president to somehow halt the process, which, again, he cannot. Instead, the vice president released a statement just before the joint session, which said, quote, 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. I've served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important vote I've ever cast.

Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate Majority Leader, also voiced support for the constitutional process, saying the voters and the states have already spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever. I will vote to respect the people's decision and defend our system of government as we know it. For more on what happened today in Washington, D.C., congressional correspondent Sue Davis

spoke to NPR's Elsa Chang on Wednesday afternoon. Here's that conversation. Do you have more information on exactly how these protesters were able to breach the various entrances of the Capitol? Because as both you and I know, there is large police presence at those entrances usually. There is, and the Capitol Police Force

is larger than the police forces of most mid-sized American cities. It's a huge force. You also know that there is many points of entry, not only into the Capitol building, but into the Capitol complex. All of those open doorways are armed by armed police officers. However, they were not clearly prepared for hundreds, if not thousands of people storming the doors. I mean, many of the doors of the Capitol, quite frankly, are glass. And we saw people breaking glass and climbing through windows

into the Capitol. The police force was simply overwhelmed. I don't think there's any other way to put it. And lives are in danger. We know that at least one person has been shot. Many others have been held under by a gunpoint by Capitol Police trying to sort of force some calm into the situation. But it's very dangerous and it's unfolding and it's disrupting democracy on a very important day in this country of what our elections are supposed to do and how they're supposed to proceed. And I think there's going to be a lot of questions, a lot of analysis of how we got here. Why this happened and why Capitol Police and other security personnel were not more prepared.

And what are we hearing from other lawmakers as the scene has been unfolding today? Can you give us a sense of what lawmakers on both sides of the aisle from leadership on down have been saying about what's been happening at the Capitol? They're horrified. They're absolutely horrified. Republican, Democrat across the board. We've seen a lot of tweeting statements from senators and House members, some streaming videos, all saying what's happening here is undemocratic, that it's wrong, calling for the violence to stop, calling for the president to do more. The big open question I think we have right now is what happens when Congress does resume and does resume the count.

There had been an effort among a dozen Senate Republicans to join with House members to protest the state outcomes. We know at least three states, they were in the middle of debating Arizona. There was plans to object to the Georgia results and to the Pennsylvania results. The question now is what do senators like Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri do now? Do they continue with these objections

to sort of legitimize the president's unfounded claims about this election? Or do they stand down because of this overwhelming show of violence and undemocratic action in the US Capitol? If it's seen as fueling that kind of behavior, going forward with it might just not be politically possible anymore. We've asked several of these senators' offices if they're going to continue to object. They have not made any public statements yet. NPR congressional correspondent Sue Davis. No matter what happens in the next 24 hours,

objectors in the House and Senate do not have enough votes to stop the certification process. Bottom line, Joe Biden will be inaugurated in 14 days, and it looks like he'll take office with the Democratic-controlled Senate. CNN will now project that Democrat Raphael Warnock is elected to the U.S. Senate. Around 2 a.m. Wednesday, it was projected that Reverend Raphael Warnock defeated Senator Kelly Loeffler, making him the first Black Democrat from the South ever elected to the Senate. Welcome to the new Georgia. It is more diverse and it's more inclusive.

Warnock spoke to NPR Wednesday morning. I'm a pastor and I lead Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. served. He said that we are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality, whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Warnock said one of the first things he wants to see Democrats do? We ought to pass the $2,000 stimulus. Pass additional pandemic relief.

And we've got to get this virus under control. We've got to get the vaccine safely and efficiently distributed. But to pass that additional relief, Democrats need to win the other runoff election that took place in Georgia on Tuesday, the one between Republican incumbent David Perdue and Democrat John Ossoff. Ossoff is 33. He would be the youngest senator elected to the Senate since Joe Biden in 1973. Biden was just 30 back then. On Wednesday afternoon, with a handful of outstanding votes

appearing to favor Ossoff, he declared victory in a video online. It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate. As of Wednesday afternoon, the race hasn't been called yet. But barring any seriously unexpected results in the remaining vote, it looks like Ossoff is headed for a win. This campaign has been about health and jobs and justice for the people of this state, for all the people of this state. And they will be my guiding principles. And it's still early, but based on the turnout in Georgia, we have an idea of who voted. And it looks like what helped put the Democrats over the top

was Black voter turnout. When I woke up this morning, though, let me tell you what I felt. I felt resolved. Latasha Brown is a co-founder of Black Voters Matter. That's a Georgia group that helped lead Get Out the Vote efforts there. When she says she felt resolved, she was thinking about the last year, Coronavirus, devastating Black communities, police shootings of unarmed Black men. So to see Black voters come out in record numbers, in spite of all of those things. And I think that after we saw a state like Georgia that had been solid Republican for 27 years, I think that there are voters and people and even the world, when they saw this state flip in November, I think it opened up an avenue for people to see

what was possible. Brown spoke to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly, who's been reporting in Georgia, about where the fight goes next. Specifically, like tomorrow you're going to wake up and do what? Hopefully tomorrow I get to sleep in. Okay, after you get a good night's sleep. After I get a good night's sleep. We say this in Black Voters Matter all the time. Our work is 365 days out of the year. We will be back at working. There are over 30 million people in this country that are living in poverty. Until that is addressed, I've got work to do. You know, when I'm looking at women, the inequity gaps of how women are paid compared to men, I've got work to do. When I am sitting in a country where there is a man who has children in his car that is walking an unarmed man to his car,

and a police officer aggressively follows behind him, grabs him by the shirt and shoots him seven times in the back as if he was a dog. And there are no charges brought against those officers. I've got work to do. And so while I am going to stop this moment and hopefully get some sleep tomorrow, now I have to focus on literally building upon what it is that we've laid the foundation for. What is the significance to you personally of Raphael Warnock being elected as Georgia's first black United States Senator? Well, the first thing I did right was the day I started to fight. Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on, hold on. That is a song that my grandmother used to sing.

That is a song that I would hear in the church. That is a song that Raphael Warnock, becoming a senator, is almost intersection of social justice, at the intersection of our belief, that here is a man who grew up as in a poor family in Savannah, Georgia, one of 12 children that literally he toppled and beat the wealthiest senator in the U.S. Senate. Right. There is a new Southern strategy that is being implemented, that is being fueled and engine by people of color and black folks are on the vanguard. Well, Latasha Brown, I hope your grandmom, I don't know if she's with us or if she's looking down on us, but I hope she heard that today. I hope so too. I lost her some years ago. She actually was born in 1910. So she would have been 110 years old had she been living. But she's the first person that I voted with. She's the first person I heard sing that song. She's the first person that taught me how to read and how to love. The politics is all driven by my love for humanity. It doesn't matter what we do,

but I do think that if we center our love for humanity, we will certainly get the kind of nation that we all deserve. LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund in Georgia. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Audie Cornish.