The US Congress has certified Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, hours after Trump supporters stormed the building in an attack that saw four people die.
Lawmakers resumed the session after police managed to remove the mob, which had been encouraged by President Trump in a bid to overturn his defeat.
The certification clears the way for Mr Biden to be sworn in on 20 January.
In response, Mr Trump pledged an “orderly transition” of power.
Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed in the early hours of Thursday by a joint session presided over by Vice-President Mike Pence, who said the violence had been a “dark day in the history of the United States Capitol”.
Wednesday’s chaotic scenes followed months of escalating rhetoric around the 3 November election and culminated with the invasion of the Capitol.
Mr Biden blasted the “insurrection” as Mr Trump while telling the mob to “go home”, continued to make false claims of electoral fraud. His Twitter and Facebook accounts were later frozen.
Mr Biden’s victory was certified after objections by some Republican lawmakers to overturn the result in Arizona and Pennsylvania were rejected.
Shortly afterward, Mr Trump said in a statement: “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 announcement was made by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of the four “tellers” appointed by the House and Senate to count the electoral college votes.
She said: “The report we make is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be the president and vice president according to the ballots that have been given to us.”
Vice-President Mike Pence, who as president of the Senate oversaw the certification process, confirmed to Congress that, of the 538 electoral college votes cast, Joe Biden and Kamal Harris received 306 and Donald Trump and Mike Pence received 232 – mirroring the results of November’s election.
“The announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed as sufficient declaration of the persons’ elected President and Vice President of the United States, each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January 2021 and shall be entered together with the list of the votes on the journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives,” Pence said.
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Source: bbc.com
