david: from new york to around the world, this is a special edition of balance of power, covering the unrest in washington dc today as pro-trump demonstrators, really rioters, ultimately charged capitol hill and the capitol building itself, entering the senate chamber while trying to tally up votes. for a review of this deeply disturbing day, we welcome our colleague laura davis. what happened?

laura: it was an credible and historic -- not in a good way -- kind of day. the proceedings at 1:00 kicked off as expected. there was an objection to the arizona results and the two chambers broke up and went to start debating. off,as the debate kicked mitch mcconnell gave this fiery speech on the senate floor, saying we need to move past this, joe biden has won, it is not our place to overturn the will of the people. as he was saying those words, protesters started storming the capitol. pointsre at several able to get into the building and overwhelmed the police force. they were inside the chamber on the senate floor yelling trump had won the election. there was an armed standoff on the house side. there are still protesters in the building roaming around. force,. capitol police

state troopers, secret service are working to secure the building. this raises a ton of questions not only of what happened procedurally in the next couple our, but how we think about whatcapitol building and republicans in particular think about what democracy is. david: we saw video of damage being done, windows broken, people breaking in. there was at least one report of a possible casualty. we saw some still photos of that . do we have any idea of injuries? with casualties, people who were injured. laura: there have been reports of one casualty. there were lots of broken butows and doors, tear gas,

only one report of casualties. there is a curfew imposed by the city of d.c. starting in about an hour. security forces are concerned violence could escalate either arehe streets or if they unable to secure the building when nightfall comes. a lot of the people who came in for these demonstrations are on buses scheduled to leave this evening. that is giving d.c. forces some hope things are on the downside. david: thank you so much for that report, laura davison in washington. now we turn to a man who has a difficult job today, the man charged with keeping law and order in washington dc. he is the attorney general of washington dc. thank you for being with us. give us your sense of how things

are on the streets of washington right now. well,laura reported quite what you saw today was action taken not by protesters, but folks intend on violating law. in d.c. we are used to having protesters. they bring signs, they chant. they from time to time have to be pushed back. a protester in the district of columbia encouraged by the president of the united states has gone through the police line into one of our most cherished institutions, the united states capitol. senators and congresspeople were humbled -- huddled down onto the ground, ushered into tunnels with gas masks on, in order to evade violence.

this is america. now is the time for us to calmly , resolutely told the president of the united states to demand his supporters to leave peacefully, now. the president issued a video a short time ago saying "please go home," though he said it was a fraudulent election. you"g at the end, "i love to the people who really are rioters. you are entirely right about that. are they still in the capital, some of them? -- capitol, some of them? karl: i am limited by my television set and my team embedded in the metropolitan police department. reportsnow from my team

literally coming out every five minutes is that the process of getting those folks out of the capitol is underway, but they still are on the capitol grounds. as to president trump's comments, he indicated again the cause, according to him, is a stolen election. the united states supreme court, other countless courts have found there was no theft of the election. even many republicans are telling you there was no theft of the election. the president criticized the u.s. supreme court, a conservative court. he criticized now his vice president when we know the common denominator is the president of the united states has acted recklessly and selfishly after his own interests and putting people and our institutions in harm's way. the unitedad day for

states of america. david: no question. you cannot be sad looking at those images. was it a surprise? it was a shock to see people breaking into the capitol building in that way. at the same time, president trump gave a speech at about noontime basically saying this was an illegitimate election. was it entirely surprising that this might turn violent? were we prepared as we should have been in the capitol? karl: those are fair questions. was it a surprise the protests turned violent? i don't think we can claim surprise. the groups that came to protest -- and i am not saying every protester -- but groups came to protest who were hell-bent on violence. there are groups that came to protest who are hate groups.

they don't like people of color. they don't particularly care for immigrants, notwithstanding their contribution to the country, and they came indeed to do damage, and they did. there is another question to be asked. we have seen these groups take over the michigan capitol, but the united states capitol, where we have other federal authorities responsible for protecting a symbol of our democracy? i would urge you to consider that should never be incurred upon by any protesters. law.tcct our rule of that is what makes us unique. david: give us a sense of what a going on right now to get sense of control. there has been a reaching out,

not only national guard, but virginia police, maryland police. karl: everything you just can't independently confirm. i have every good reason to believe your reporting is correct, that the neighbors of the district of columbia -- we have a pretty close knit neighborhood. maryland, virginia, and delaware. these are jurisdictions that intersect together. they are coming to lend a hand because they can see the potential for chaos. some of the groups represented today create havoc through the day, they create mass violence at night. i'm hopeful that doesn't occur, but it is at night's fall when these groups really look to hurt

people, property, and symbols of our democracy. david: i'm glad you raised that. we are about 50 minutes away from the curfew mayor bowser called. two we have any indication if that -- do we have any indication if that curfew will hold? karl: let me reiterate that, if you are not an essential worker, and i am talking about law enforcement, security detail and the like, you need to be home by 6:00 p.m. and not on the streets of the district of columbia. whether groups that have clearly violated the law throughout the day will all of a sudden start complying with the law is something i frankly doubt. i do believe the metropolitan police department and other law enforcement officers will seek to enforce the curfew.

my office will certainly prosecute folks who violate the curfew. david: i can't thank you enough for your time in a difficult and disappointing day for us. all of these things have effects in the markets. have've been talking, we various ceo's condemning the violence. have the markets reacted to what is going on in washington? >> it was all about georgia this morning. as it was clear georgia was highs onlue, record all the major indices. around 2:00 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. when it went into the peaceful protests to storming the capitol , you got a dip in futures. a record day overall on the dow.

tech bearing the brunt of a selloff today. they don't like higher rates. rates, we will do that in a moment. for equity in the bond markets. that did not move today. rates higher by 8, 11 basis points on the 10 and 30 year yield. that is the scenario the rate markets were reacting to from the news this morning. we like to go across assets at bloomberg, looking for further confirmation. the theme of the year has been further dollar weakness. you see big spikes in dollar strength. you have further dollar weakness today. you did not see the classic safe havens you would see in big strengthpanic like yen

relative to the euro or dollar. the yield and currency markets showing calm. going back to the equity markets, off some of the record highs we have seen earlier in the session. david: thank you for the report on the markets. that is taylor riggs. coming up next, with the capitol on lockdown, what happens to the tallying of the electoral college votes? this is bloomberg. ♪

david: this is a special edition of balance of power. the reason why the senate and house were in session were to count up electoral college

votes. how do we get back to that? we need someone appointed january 20 as president. oururnn to -- turn to washington bureauchief -- washington bureau chief. >> we have already started to see some statements from some onesors, not many of the involved in this challenge, saying we need to get back into the capitol. lindsey graham, republican senator from south carolina, close friend of donald trump, supporting joe biden, saying we need to move forward. joe mansion, a conservative democrat from west virginia saying we should not let folks stop us from doing the people's work. the u.s. chamber of commerce sent a statement saying the same

thing. i am reluctant to make the comparison, but it reminded me one congress -- when congressmen gathered at the steps of the capitol and sung god bless america. disunityas based on when you had republicans challenging the election of joe biden as president. maybe some will say this has gone too far, we need to certify joe biden in time for the january 20 inauguration. reporter, so ia will not ask you to speculate, but may be a little bit. cruz hard to imagine ted caving that same speech -- after that same speech that he did before. will they have those debates whether this was a legitimate election? craig: i am speculating only in

the sense that it is human nature. ted cruz, you might agree or disagree with his politics, but i think he believes in the constitution. it might be a little hard to have that same fire and brimstone he had this morning in challenging the results of an election which we can agree has been decided. biden won by 6 million votes. on the other hand, ted cruz, part of his speech was -- look, we are afforded this opportunity to question the integrity of the election. there is a process to question the electors. an emergency for ten-day panel to study whether there were any irregularities in the vote. that seems more like a fig leaf than a totally serious proposal. cruz sayight see ted

this country was built on honest agreements -- honest disagreements. what we saw in the house chamber was not that. it'see, to use the phrase, kind of a bad look for the republicans right now to take this back. they were talking about doing three states, two to four hours of debate for each state. we were planning to be here until 2:00 in the morning. wethey reinstate that now, could be here until sunrise. ourd: craig gordon, washington bureau chief. let's go to someone who knows the republicans fairly well, rick davis, our political contributor who ran john mccain's campaign.

how do you put the republican party back together? we saw even the debate in the senate, it was republican against republican with mitch mcconnell against ted cruz. ack: one thing that needs clear distinction is this is a donald trump-inspired protest, both inside and outside the capitol. ted cruz is not speaking for the republican party when he protests the electors, he is speaking for donald trump. the protesters on and in the ourtol are not violating institutions because they are good standing republicans who support everyone on the ticket, it is because they are trump supporters. in essence trump encouraged to hem to do what they did this morning when he met with this crowd in front of the white house. if you read mitch mcconnell's

remarks where he first introduced the senate deliberation on the discussion around the arizona electors, he theclear, it was a talk to republican caucus. he was very clear he didn't support this initiative, that he thought it was walking down a dangerous path. you always used to use a certain line, what's good for our country should be good for our party's and we should never do anything in our party that isn't good for the country. this is a big departure from that. out of this will come a serious debate. joe biden will be sworn in as president. the republican party will have a post-trump look at itself in the mirror. there will be a difficult debate as to who becomes the leader of

the party. with the senate going democratic, which appears to be a certainty now, mitch mcconnell would have been our top elected republican in the country. now we don't have that. a vacuum has been created not just by donald trump leaving office, but mitch mcconnell becoming minority leader in the next congress. there will be a rush of activity. it is probably one of the reasons ted cruz is doing what he is doing. power grabs come in many shapes and forms. asare in a difficult period the grand old party will look at itself after today and say did we aid an attack on the capitol by the rhetoric of officeholders in the republican party? david: i also wonder with facebook coming out with a statement saying the violent

protests in the capitol are a disgrace. we will remove calls for violence onn our platform -- on our platform. social media was not having an easy time with republicans and democrats. onl there be a new focus social media's role in discourse? craig: non doub -- no doubt. it was at the core of president trump's efforts to get rid of section 230 in the defense authorization act. both republicans and democrats agree social media has been a platform for hate speech for some time, and that without government regulation, the industry has not really done enough to improve the political discourseor the human on their platforms. you will see a bipartisan

meeting of the minds around the official government position on how to regulate speech on social media platforms. extremism is not just found in the middle east, you are looking at it on television tonight. the people attacking the capitol and flying the confederate flag inside the capitol today are extremists. those things do not help our country grow and prosper. david: well said. our political contributor at bloomberg. thest lost in this was second senatorial race declared in georgia, so both seats went to the democrats. we turn to our intrepid reporter, emily wilkins. it's official. emily: democrats have won both senate seats in georgia. that means democrats will control the senate for at least

the next two years. buts a 50-50 split, democrats have control as vice president, larry's can -- kamala harris can do any tiebreaker for the democrats. david: thank you so much. no, go ahead. is there any possibility of a recount? emily: there is a bit of a possibility for a recount. the key is 0.5%. if candidates have that margin or a smaller margin between them, they can ask for a recount. at this point neither race is within that margin. both democrats have a larger margin on their republican opponents. more votes coming in at this point. senator perdue promised to take any legal action to make sure all votes are counted. david: we are talking about

legal action again? i had not heard that before. we might have lawsuits brought? emily: we might. this is something perdue's team has not put out a lot of details on. we will watch those campaigns. the news in the capitol over -- overshadowed things today. we will be watching this story play out. we heard georgia election officials say this race did not have any fraud. they believe everything we have seen at this point is legitimate. david: terrific reporting you have done for a long time. appreciate your reporting from the state of georgia. it's official, 50-50 split in the senate between republicans and democrats with the vice president elect casting the deciding vote. it will be a close balance

without any doubt. coming up, we will talk with a democrat of ohio who was in the capitol during the disturbance. this is "balance of power" (announcer) do you want to reduce stress? shed pounds? do you want to flatten your stomach? do all that and more in just 10 minutes a day with aerotrainer, the total body fitness solution that uses its revolutionary ergonomic design to help you to maintain comfortable, correct form. that means better results in less time. you can do an uncomfortable, old-fashioned crunch or an aerotrainer super crunch. turn regular planks into turbo planks without getting down on the floor. and there are over 20 exercises to choose from. incredible for improving flexibility and perfect for enhancing yoga and pilates. and safe for all fitness levels.

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david: -- >> i know your pain, i know you're hurting. we had an election that was stolen from us. it was a landslide election. everyone knows it. especially the other side. but you have to go home now. we have to have peace. that was president donald j. trump addressing the riots at capitol hill today. we turn to our white house correspondent. give us a sense in the white house about what their reaction

was to this. do they know what the reaction is? the wood has been left short footed. their list a message sometime well after the capital had been breached. be message again appears to underwhelming or insufficient to really address the magnitude of what is happening. he still repeated some of his unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen from him. those type of -- types of statements do a little to calm down a crowd that has stormed the u.s. capitol. >> the president saying i know how you feel, go home in peace. a statement from the washington police chief

saying at least five weapons have been recovered. inconsistent with what president trump said he was trying to accomplish. is inconsistent. he essentially denounced the violence in the wake of some of the racial unrest this past summer. you are seeing in the twittersphere, some of the president's most ardent supporters urging him to just calm down. the former white house committee cases director just came out with a tweet that said the election was not stolen, they lost fair and square. there were some instances of fraud but nothing of the

magnitude that the president has claimed. you are seeing some of the trying tos allies calm down the situation. that was mario parker. the bloomberg white house reporter. we are turning to somebody who has served in the white house. this is the reverend joe watkins. thank you so much for being with us. you served under a republican president. >> this is a very difficult night for all of us as americans. this is where presidents lose

elections, they welcome their successor. not about us, it is about the country. it is really difficult to see. i thought that mitch mcconnell gave the best speech he has ever given in recent years when he spoke on the floor of the capital. about the country, about the democracy. that is about -- that is what it is about. david: you make a really important point, joe. democrat, left or right, this issue really cuts across that. i thought mitch mcconnell was actually lecturing his own doing and saying you're the wrong thing here. it is not simply a republican issue, it is a broader issue in our society. >> absolutely, mitch mcconnell

was trying to call on them to do the right thing, to not think about how you can grab hold of the incumbent president's base. but think about the country, what it takes to move the country forward. i like what he said. i thought it was so appropriate, so timely. >> what is the way forward for the republican party? >> they have to figure out if we are still the party of abraham lincoln, if we care about the importance of fiscal responsibility and if we care about the direction of the country, about americans hurting the most. we have to be the party of all americans, it is more diverse than it has than in the past.

leadinly, more willing to when it comes to matters that ordinary americans care about. be thehope this can party of abraham lincoln who united the country in a very difficult time. hopefully this can be a party going forward that unites this country at a time when we are so fractured. this will take the people with the best hearts and our party. -- in our party. david: i wonder if it will require some courage. it appears to the outside world that some people in the party have been concerned about alienating the core trump base who does not seem to be too inclined to change their minds on things. >> very well said. ors is not for self-interest

public interest, especially the american public interest. this is about speaking truth. not just to tell them to go home but to tell them that they have to respect the rule of law and respect the outcome of both these american elections. they have to respect the will of the american people. our response billy as americans is to accept that and be rooting for the new leader of the country to succeed. we may not agree on every issue, we may disagree. mobs of people are armed and storming the capital of the united states. i wrote this little book called the new pc, practical

consideration. all i say in the book is how we talk to each other and treat each other in politics and daily life matters. we have to treat each other like we care about each other. even if we don't agree, we have to listen to each other and love each other. i am hoping and praying that that is the direction we take. david: that message is import for both sides of the out. it will be important for -- it will be easy for democrats to point the finger and said this is a republican issue. i think it is important for joe biden to be understanding and accommodating to the public's and conservatives. >> i think president-elect biden is showing tremendous restraint and that is the right attitude at this time of division in the country. it is whoever is president, it is joe biden who will be the next president of the united

states. they have to be the president for all the people. they have to move us forward that way. they have to be not so concerned about their political future. i think joe biden is not as concerned about that as he is about moving the country forward. but he has to move us forward. alec everything he said so far in that vein. looking to bring people together and told the best ideas from both sides and move the country forward. i think it is about how we move the country forward, what are the best ideas? how do we have dialogue that is useful and helpful to the american public without being destructive to mock chrissy? david: we can -- destructive to democracy. much, thank you so reverend joe watkins, former aide to george h w bush.

in the meantime, something else that happened today, the second seat in the senate went to a democrat in the state of georgia. this is balance of power on bloomberg television. ♪

--id: president biden: at this hour, or democracy is under unprecedented strain. unlike anything we have seen in modern times, an assault on the citadel of liberty. was president-elect biden. he was speaking a short time ago, addressing the riots on

capitol hill by some pro-trump forces. we will tell you who was in the building during that assault. it is joyce beatty from the state of ohio. we need to ask how are you, congresswoman? beatty: i am doing fine. a few hours ago, it was a little unsettling. we heard there would be protesters here, i don't think anyone imagined that they would be able to not only get inside stepske over the capital to scale the walls of the united states capital. pelosi'sto speaker office and to cover both chambers. we saw shots being fired and glass being broken. members were barricaded in offices and escorted off the floor. tear gas masks were provided.

i am so proud of the members of congress, they acted immediately for the safety of themselves. was the first meeting of the congressional black caucus. still waiting for full clearance. many of us witnessed and marched in and participated in these. it was a different day, today when i think about photos that i look back on when black lives ander came to the capital how it lines up with officers -- they were not allowed to come to the steps. today, we watched people scaling andwalls and climbing up coming with things that could be harmful to the police officers but it gives me pause to wonder

how they got through metal doors. how did they get into the capital? be in the capital throughd then moving the halls and they were not escorted or arrested. where were all of the vans and the trucks to arrest them? it is too great discomfort that they were able to do that at this level. david: congresswoman, you were all there to take the tallies of the electoral college. they are going to be some objections, i think we all know how it would come out. >> absolutely. i am comfortable that we will go

back into the chambers and do the people's work. this is something that this president has done. he is very big on getting you to defect to something else, thinking he can stop us. we will stay here all night if it takes that to get us safety clearance. i think it only energizes us more.- us i am estimating probably in will gohour or so, many back to the chambers, others will stay safe, where we are and then within another couple of hours, i am comfortable that we will be able to go to our offices and proceed as planned in ethyl medical order to vote and do the people's business.

it may take us into the wee hours of the night but we will do this. david: you believe that congress will complete its constitutional responsibilities before they leave that building to finalize the electoral college votes. we will have a definite answer before you're done? i am absolute confident that we will go back and vote. if we don't, that means that trump god what he wanted and we are bigger than that. we are not going to let them make us afraid to do our work. we understand that we have to be barricaded and protected for safety reasons but i can tell you, no one in this room with me afraiding like they are to go do the work.

bothered, upset, angry that we had to experience this and that we did not have more protection early on, that the national guard was not approved earlier to stop those individuals who were being destructive to the united states capital and putting members and staff at risk. it is always difficult but you mention this is a new congress just starting out. it will be a different congress than any other given the way you started out. we had two senate seats come in that will tie the senate at the deciding vote to vice president kamala harris. how will this change congress? >> we will definitely see a change in the course of this

congress. i the mere fact that we now have the majority in all three, the house, the senate and vice president elect kamala harris will be sitting in a very powerful seat when it comes to the senate, breaking ties, she comes from the senate. she will be the vice president and she is ready. i think, tomorrow when we wake out, we will know that after january 20th, it will be a new day for the people. we can talk about real issues, we can get real legislation passed. we won't have to be wondering what we are going to do about voting rights. we will be ready. this afternoon will be a good day.

and joey is coming biden and, harris -- kamala harris will lead us to that day. david: i wish you all the very best. i am very happy that you are in good shape. thank you for being with us. that was congresswoman joyce beatty. coming up, we will talk about what is next. we will have craig gordon back, our washington bureau chief. this is special coverage on bloomberg television. i'm david westin. ♪

david: this is a special edition of balance of power. we are covering this motion and riding on capitol hill in

washington dc. they are joined by our bloomberg washington bureau chief. is a rather remarkable development. we know that president trump taped a video placing to go home. i understand that it was a fraudulent election, but still, go home and be peaceful. now we have facebook pulling down that video. facebook saying this is an emergency situation. we are taking appropriate emergency measures. this is pretty extraordinary. people -- theynt were saying this is on your head if you don't take this down. >> i agree and we know that donald trump has been at war

with the social media companies. it is a continuation of that. the interesting thing to me is that several people, including joe biden himself said donald trump needs to go on national television to try to calm the waters. of course, it is donald trump, he has to praise or offer protesters.hese even while allegedly trying to calm things down, he managed to splash a little more water on the fire and i think facebook said enough. >> the officials had declared the capital secure. we just talked with joyce beatty. she said as far as she is concerned, they are going to get

back into those chambers and review those of touro college votes. is that possible? >> there is definitely a mood along -- among the lawmakers to try to not let mob rule drive them out of the capital. republicans don't see i die on certifying the results for joe biden. i kind of feeling some of the temperature on that will be turned down. they may try to use this as a moment of unity. staring down the protesters in a sense by saying you can stop us from doing our work. that work was very divisive work. i am not sure that exact conversation will continue with that level of partisan vitriol

but we are expecting some action inside the capital. the timing and substance of that to be determined. david: just to keep going on what is an extra near newsday, google is announcing that it is taking down debts from video from youtube. it is not just facebook anymore. >> i know there is a growing mood, even among many republicans that donald trump needs to answer for this for what happened today. obviously, he did not storm the capital himself but he did give aid and comfort to the people who did. rove sayple like karl this is wrong, this needs to stop, the president needs to step up and tell these people to stop it. obviously, trump did not do that. i actually think some of the

fissures that donald trump has had with the republican party over the four years of his presidency, he does not have a lot of friends right now to put it simply. david:david: that was craig gordon. we will have continuing coverage on bloomberg asia. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> good morning. i am haidi stroud-watts incident. >> i am shery ahn in new york. cass at the heart of american democracy. protesters storm the capital, shots are fired with this one person wounded. president trump and joe biden call for calm.