A protester holds a Trump flag inside the U.S. Capitol Building near the Senate Chamber on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. A group of Republican senators said they would reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appointed a commission to audit the election results./Win McNamee, Getty Images
By Ronald J. Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez | Arizona Republic
The U.S. Capitol went into a security lockdown on Wednesday as rioters supportive of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol as Congress debated a challenge to Arizona’s presidential electors.
The two-hour debate unfolding in both the Senate and House of Representatives was halted after the Trump supporters smashed glass in the building and police responded with guns drawn, according to media accounts. Authorities used a gas to help disperse the crowd. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a citywide curfew starting at 4 p.m. Arizona time.
The Senate sheltered its members in place shortly after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., defended the state’s election integrity. The lockdown in the House happened as Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., was arguing in the House for a forensic audit of the state’s election results before certifying its electors.
The challenge to the state’s electors forced a debate in both chambers of Congress over certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in November.
Both of Arizona’s Democratic senators, Sinema and Mark Kelly, were expected to oppose the effort along with most of the GOP-controlled Senate. Neither would elaborate Tuesday on how they view the expected challenges in the joint session of Congress that is the final procedural hurdle ahead of Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The opposition campaign to object to Biden’s win is almost sure to fail given Democrats’ control of the House of Representatives and the makeup of the GOP, where only a dozen or so members have signed onto the effort, sure to fuel the unfounded notion that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump.
Gosar, one of Trump’s most ardent supporters throughout his presidency, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, objected to Arizona’s election results when the state’s electoral votes came up at the joint session on Wednesday. They also could join the effort to dismiss other states contested by Trump when the session resumes.
