After speeches by angry Democrats and somewhat chastened Republicans, a joint session of Congress finally certified Joe Biden's electoral college win at approximately 3:39.a.m. Thursday (Jan. 7), paving the way for his inauguration as the 46th President Jan. 20.
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That came following the extraordinary storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters egged on by the soon to be ex-President, a extraordinary event that reportedly left four dead--one person shot, the others dying of "medical emergencies."
The President had spoken at a rally early Wednesday (Jan. 6) to continue to say the election was rigged and had been stolen and that he would not accept this defeat and urged his supporters to go to the Capitol, where the counting was underway.
Objections were raised to the electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania, but other objections were introduced then dropped given the extraordinary events of Jan. 6 and lacking the requisite support by both a representative and a senator.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) herself a former presidential candidate, announced the final vote tally and the result that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had won the election and Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the counting, followed with his affirmation of that victory for his election opponents.
The President did not tweet about the proceedings because Twitter suspended his account Wednesday over tweets that violated its rules. In such cases it will not restore the account until those tweets are removed by the user.
But he did get a tweeted message out, this one coming as close as he will likely come to conceding his loss, though vowing to stay in the political ring.
“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," the President said after the certification, according to a statement tweeted by White House advisor Dan Scavino (given that Trump's account was locked). "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!”
