Pro-Trump protesters riot inside of U.S. Capitol

Today was a very shocking and scary day in Washington D.C. as pro-Trump protesters broke into the U.S. Capitol building, forced both chambers of Congress to evacuate, and stopped the counting of the electoral college. I will go back to the beginning of the day and then proceed.

This afternoon in the U.S. Capitol, Vice President Mike Pence and both chambers of Congress met to count the electoral college votes.

Last night President Trump pressured Pence by tweeting that Pence can block certain states’ electors. Trump said Pence needed to show “extreme courage.”

Trump gave a speech about noon today at a D.C. rally in which he said he hoped Pence would stand up and if he didn’t he would be very disappointed in him.

This afternoon, before Pence entered the Capitol, he said in a public letter that his “oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains him from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.” What this means is that Pence is saying he can’t do what Trump wants him to do.

As Congress began counting the electoral votes of states according to alphabetical order, there were no objections for Alabama and Alaska, states that Trump won, but when Arizona came up, which is a state that Trump lost in, two Republican senators objected to it as Republican lawmakers applauded.

Because of the objection, Congress split up the chambers to debate it.

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During the debate, Sen. McConnell, who was the Republican majority leader, spoke up against the idea of overturning the 2020 election results. He warned that if we did this, it would destroy America. He said it would be wrong to disenfranchise voters and overrule court decisions. He said he would vote to respect the people’s decision.

While there was debate going on, many pro-Trump protesters swarmed police at the Capitol building and went up a balcony. More protesters swarmed and burst inside of the building by smashing windows. The Capitol building went under lockdown. Congress had to stop debating and evacuate. VP Pence was also evacuated.

The situation continued to deteriorate from there. Protesters waving Trump flags were seen walking inside of the Capitol rotunda and inside of the chambers themselves in the same place that Congress was meeting just a few hours prior.

One protester was pictured inside of House Speaker Pelosi’s office. Protesters wrote down on an envelope, “WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.”

One woman was shot inside the U.S. Capitol, but it’s not clear what exactly happened. News images showed security officers pointing a gun at a broken window of a door that was barricaded.

Capitol police were simply unable to stop the protesters. News reports said they were focused on protecting members of Congress and staffers.

The D.C. Mayor ordered a 6 p.m. curfew.

President-elect Joe Biden gave a live address in which he denounced the protesters and called on President Trump to go on TV “right now” and tell the protesters to back down. Biden said the protests was an insurrection.

A short time later, President Trump posted a brief video in which he told the protesters to go home and to stay peaceful. He maintained that the election was stolen from him.

News footage at the time I’m signing this shows a calmed down presence in the U.S. Capitol with many people going home with an increased law enforcement presence around the Capitol.

It’s not clear to me when Congress will return to continue counting the electoral college votes. Even though there will likely be objections from some Republican members of Congress, there is virtually no chance for Biden’s election victory to be overturned because it requires both the House and the Senate to vote in a majority to reject the electors. The House won’t do this, and there are more Senate Republicans who support the election than against.

Before today’s chaos, it was thought that Congress would stay up all night and into the early morning to count the votes. We’ll see how much they are delayed.

Now you can see live video footage here. I’ve been watching the live video all day today. You can see that the situation has calmed down some. I just saw a team of FBI SWAT members going inside the Capitol building with guns. It must be a very secure situation. I can imagine they have to check to make sure all the protesters are out of the Capitol building .

You can see police moving around and setting up perimeters to control the situation. Many people in the world are shocked to see the U.S. Capitol building like this. It is usually very secure, but it was overwhelmed, with broken windows and people bursting in. I remember when I visited the Capitol when I was younger -- there was security personnel with large guns and it didn't seem you could even break in, but it happened today.

So, that’s the situation and we’ll see when Congress meets back again. I hope they will come back soon. The protesters’ goal is to delay or disrupt, they don't want Trump's term to expire. They want to cause chaos to extend it further. But Congress must do their job to meet and follow the will of our voters.