Protesters stormed the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, Wednesday, claiming that Donald Trump had won the presidential election, rather than Joe Biden.
The demonstrators pushed their way past police as senators inside the building debated the certification of the presidential election. The chamber was evacuated after protesters breached security.
Photographs from inside the chamber, which were posted on social media, showed one protester at the Speaker of the House’s chair, purportedly shouting “Trump won the election.”
In response to the protest, Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a citywide curfew from 6pm Wednesday until 6am Thursday.
As the actions of the demonstrators escalated, Trump issued a tweet, urging protesters to ‘stay peaceful’.
Just before the protesters breached the building, Trump had tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Pence, in a letter to his fellow lawmakers before he presided over a joint session of Congress to tally the Electoral College votes, had said he had no “unilateral authority to decide presidential contests” and could not change the election results.
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