United States Congress Affirms Biden Win After Capitol Attack

United States President-elect, Joe Biden's Electoral College victory has been affirmed by the US Congress on Thursday after the Capitol attack, AllNews reports. 

Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the count conducted by a joint session of Congress, announced that Biden had won the Electoral College vote after the House and Senate easily defeated Republican objections lodged against the votes sent by two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The counting of Vermont’s three electoral votes put Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris over the 270-threshold needed to win the presidency. Biden's certification comes a day after Pro-Trump rioters invaded the US Capitol.

After Congress' confirmation of Biden as the winner of the election, President Donald Trump promised that there will be "an orderly transition" on January 20th.

Although the lawmakers were forced into lockdown by pro-Trump rioters that overran US Capitol Police, the lawmakers vowed to finish what they had started, and the Senate reconvened just after 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, nearly six hours after it abruptly recessed.

According to Mike Pence, "To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win, As we reconvene in this chamber, the world will again witness the resilience and strength of our democracy, even in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism in this Capitol."

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Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has pushed back against Trump's effort to use the joint session to overturn the election results, said that Congress has "faced down much greater threats than the unhinged crowd we saw today."

"They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed," the Kentucky Republican

As they reconvened, Democrats and some Republicans condemned Trump's rhetoric in the lead-up to Wednesday's session, saying he deserved some of the blame for inciting the pro-Trump rioters who stormed into the Capitol.

"This mob was a good part President Trump's doing, incited by his words, his lies," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "Today's events almost certainly would not have happened without him."

The Senate voted 93 to 6 to dismiss the objection raised by Republicans to Arizona's results, and 92 to 7 to reject the objection to Pennsylvania.

In the House, a majority of Republicans voted to object to the results, but they were still soundly rejected, 303 to 121 for Arizona and 282 to 138 for Pennsylvania, with all Democrats in opposition. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was among the House Republicans to vote to reject the two states' results.

The riots prompted several Senate Republicans who had planned to object to decide they would no longer do so.

"I think today changed things drastically," said Sen. Mike Braun, an Indiana Republican who was one of the objectors. "Whatever point you made before that should suffice. (Let's) get this ugly day behind us."