Congress has certified Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
Joe Biden was certified as the 46th president of the U.S. on Wednesday evening after a mob of Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an incident that ultimately left four dead. Extremists broke through the doors of the building around 1:30 p.m., halting the joint session of Congress for several hours before it was able to proceed later that evening.
Amidst the uproar, politicians were whisked away by their security guards and senators hid behind chairs in the chambers while rioters scaled walls, shattered windows and marched through the halls of the chambers.
One rioter made it all the way to Speaker of the House Nacy Pelosi's desk, where he reclined in her chair and rested his feet atop her desk as others flipped tables and pulled photos off the walls of her office. The man even left a threatening note on a manila folder that read, "we will not back down."
Proceedings resumed around 8 p.m. ET. Vice President Mike Pence restarted the session proclaiming, "let's get back to work."
In a statement released through White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino's Twitter account, President Trump addressed for the first time that there will be an "orderly transition" on Jan. 20, when Biden is inaugurated into office.
"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th," Trump said.
"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again."
At the time of the statement's release, Trump's own Twitter account was locked after tweeting to supporters who stormed the Capitol.
By Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced that both Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts have been blocked "indefinitely" and "for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."
"Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies," Zuckerberg wrote. "We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."
"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."
Biden finished with 306 electoral college votes and Trump with 232 votes.
One woman died after suffering a gunshot wound from a plainclothes officer inside the capitol building. The shooting is currently being investigated by MPD's internal affairs unit. Three others, a woman and two men, died from "separate medical emergencies," Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee confirmed, according to CBS News.
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