one woman is shot and killed and three pipe bombs found. it is impossible to over state the significance of this moment. for the first time in generations, the capitol building was invaded andover on by violent mob. it was put under sieged and ter traumatiz terrorized and a man who have shown himself to be a coward and whip thped them into a frenzy o the election he lost months ago. and making money after them and overturning it and overturning the election, that's how he was making his money and claims about if they funded him, they

would help him overturn the election. he repeated all of it this afternoon and hit the go button. >> we are going to walk down and i will be there with you. we'll walk down anyone you want, we'll walk down to the capitol and we'll cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we'll not be cheering so much for some of them. because you will never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strengths or have to be strong. >> he did not march with them, he watched the carnage. while he watched on television from inside the white house as

police officers and elected representatives attacked, he did nothing until he was persuaded to put out a couple of halfhearted calls which continue to incite his followers who he continued to call patriots. his republican enablers were fine with all of it. these were the senators until the coup objecting to the counts that he had lost. just in case you don't think they don't know what they were doing, here is josh hawley raising his fist in solidarity shortly before the violence started. josh hawley had blood on his hand in capitol coup attempt.

laura and i are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our nation's government in disbelief and dismay. it is sickening and heartbre heartbreaking sight. i am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and the lack of respect shown for our institutions, traditions and our law enforcement. after all that, house and senate lawmakers are prepared to go back to work. we'll go to phil mattingly who's on capitol hill. phil, what's happening right now? >> reporter: i think probably using the word surreal about 100 times today. i have never seen anything like what we witnessed. you had senators being walked from where they were being held in an undisclosed location with

long guns so they can get to the senate floor to restart this process. the senate floor that had been invaded by trespassers while lawmakers were evacuated early in the days. several republicans i spoken to made clear there has been a pressure campaign on those republicans who plan to object, keep in mind one objection is still going on right now. arizo arizona. they are trying to get this objection to beat the last. nothing is finalized yet according to the people i am talking to now. several have came out and said things are different as mike bron put it to reporters, we need to get this ugly day behind us. michael bron was one of those objectors. the big question is given what we have seen the last seven or eight hours, senator josh hawley decides that we don't need to do

three or six, one will be enough. it is an open question right now. one thing to keep a close eye on. senate majority mitch mcconnell is expected to take the floor soon. he's expected to speak. they attention to those words and it will lay the ground work for what to come over the course of several hours. >> senator cruz and hawley, this is about their own presidential ambition, this is not some principle stance they are making. they are lying to the people and encouraging them. do you have any words when congress will resume the certification whether those objectors will carry through with their plans even of shortening down to one state? >> reporter: the senate will be back soon. i keep on saying the word surreal, they were sweeping up the broken glass right before senators getting in. all eyes are hawley and cruz.

i can tell you behind closed doors, those objectors were meeting and trying to figure out a path forward with staffs and republicans and democratic side. i can't underscore enough the frustration and anger you are hearing from democrats and republicans of what transpired today and how upset they are with president trump. republicans included and one thing to keep in mind, senator pat lahey was asked -- they want to defend donald trump, let them talk all night after what we just saw. >> thank you, phil mattingly. joining us right now bernie sanders. senator sanders, you have warned of the kind of rhetoric that

president trump has been using of his words and actions. can you walk me through what your experience was today of this mob stormed the capitol? >> it was surreal. we were just escorted by the fbi and capitol police and dozens and dozens on the floor and enforcement getting us back to the chambers so we can - >> senator sanders, vice president pence is speaking c, want to play that for our viewers. >> we defended our capitol today. we'll always be grateful. the men and women who stayed at their post to defend this historic place. those who reek havoc in our capitol today. you did not win.

violence never wins. freedom wins. this is still the people's house. as we reconvene in this chamber, the world will again witness the resilience and strength of our democracy for even in the wake of unprecedented violent and vandalism at this capitol. the elected representatives of the people of the united states assembled again on the very same day to support and defend the constitution of the united states. so may god bless the loss, the injured, and the hero on this day. may god bless all who served here and those who protect us and may god bless the united states of america.

let's get back to work . >> still joined by senator sanders. i am sorry to interrupt, have you seen or lived through a darker day in america? >> no, it really is very sad for our democracy and our country. it speaks to the fact that we have a president who not only is a pathological liar, somebody that lost an election by 7 million votes and lost the electoral college but is prepared -- >> i am sorry, sir, i have to go to senator mcconnell. >> i will get back. i will talk to you later.

bye bye. >> the mobs or threats. we'll not bow to lawlessness or intimidation. we are back at our post. we'll discharge our duty under the constitution and for our nation. and we are going to do it tonight. this afternoon, congress began the process of honoring the will of the american people and could wanting the electoral college votes. we fulfilled the solemn duty every four years for more than two centuries, whether or nation has been at war or at peace, under alienal matter of threatsn an ongoing armed rebellion and a civil war, the clock works of our democracy has carried on.

the united states and the united states congress have faced down a much greater threat than the unhinged crowd we saw today. we never been deterred before, we'll not be deterred today. they tried to disrupt our democracy, they failed. they failed. they failed to attempt to obstruct the congress and this failed resurrection underscored how crucial the task before us is for our public. our nation was founded precisely so that the fre choie choice of american people is what shapes our government and determined the destination of our destination. not the earth, not force but the peaceful expression of the

popular will. now we assemble this afternoon to count our citizens' votes and formalized their choice of the next president. now, we are going to finish exactly what we started. we'll complete the process the right way by the book. we'll follow our president, our laws and our constitution to the letter. and we'll certify the winner of the 2020 presidential election. criminal behavior will never dominate the united states congress. this institution is resilience, our democratic republic is strong. the american people deserve nothing less.

>> democratic leader. >> mr. president, mr. president, it is very difficult to put into words what has transpired today. i never lived through or experienced like the one we just witnessed in this capitol. president roosevelt set aside december 7th, 1941, a day that we'll live in famy. unfortunately, we can add january 6th to that short date of american history that'll live forever infamy. windows were smashed and our office were vandalized, the

world saw american elected huri because they were in harm's way. leaving rioters to stalk these hollow halls. lawmakers in our stance and average citizens who love your country feared for their lives. i understand one woman was shot and tragically lost her life. we mourn her and feel for her friends and family. these images were projected to the world, their home capitol to report the harrowing scene at the heart of our democracy. this is a stain in our country not easily washed away. the fine and of our 45th

president of the united states in doubtingly are worst. those who performed these acts can't be called protesters. no. these were rioters and insurrectiin signaturist in signature rsig in surr insurrectionis insurrectionists. they must be prosecuted by the law, hopefully by this administration or if not, certainly the next. they should be provided no

lenien leniency. i want to thank the leaders, democrats and republicans, house and senate, it was speaker pelosi and leader mcconnell and mccarthy and myself came together and decided that these thugs would not succeed that we would finish the work that our constitution requires us to complete. in the legislative chambers of the house and senate that was desecrated but we know always belong to the people and do again tonight. make no mistake, make no mistake my friends. today's event did not happen spontaneously. the president promoted conspiracy theory that motivated these thugs and the president ex sort

who egged them on. he hardly ever discourages violence and more often encourages it. this president bears a great deal of the blame. this mob was in good part president trump's doing. incited by his words and lies. this violent in good part of his responsibility and his ever lasting shame. today's event certainly, ser certainly would not have happened without him. now january 6th will go down as one of the darkest days in recent american history, a final warning to our nation about the consequences of a president, the people who enabled him, the captive media that carries his lies and the people who followed him as he attempts to push

america to the brink of ruin. as we reconvene tonight, let us remember in the end, all these mobs established is delaying our work in a few hours. we'll resume our responsibility and finish our task tonight. the house and senate chambers will be restored good as new and ready for legislating in short order. democracy roots in this nation are deep and strong and it will not be undone ever by a group of thugs. democracy will triumph as it has for sencenturies. so to my fellow americans, who was shocked and appall on the images on their television today and who are worried of the future of this country, let me

speak to you directly. the divisions in our country clearly runs deep. we are a resilient, forward looking and optimistic people. we'll begin the hard work of repairing this nation tonight because here in america, we do hard things and america we always overcome our challenges. >> i yield two-minutes to the senator of oklahoma. >> senator from oklahoma. >> the vice president, you said things more eloquently than how we said it in oklahoma. in oklahoma we say something like what in god's name would someone think attacking law enforcement and occupying the united states' capitol is the best way to show that you are

right. why would you do that? rioters and thugs don't run the capitol. we are the united states of america. we disagree on a lot of things and we have a lot of spirit debates in this room but we talk it out and we honor each other, even in our disdisagreements. that person, that person is not my enemy, that's my fellow american. while we disagree on things and disagree strongly at times. we do not encourage what happened today ever. i want to join my fellow senators and saying thank you to the capitol hill police and law enforcement and secret service who stood in harm's way while we were here debating, they were pushing back. i was interrupted mid-sentence

speaking here because we were unaware of what was happening outside this room because of what they have done. i want to thank you them, thank you, ronald reagan once said "peace is not the absence of con fli conflic conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means." the people of oklahoma don't want what happened today. they want to do the right thing. they also want to do it the right way. they want to honor the constitutional process band als debate of the election security because they want to make sure it is right. transparency and government does not seem like a bad idea. obviously the commission that we have asked for is not going to happen at this point and i

understand that. we are headed towards tonight towards the certification of joe biden being the president of the united states, we'll work together in this body to be able to set a peaceful example of the days ahead. i yield the floor. >> democratic leader, senator cortez master. >> senator from nevada. >> mr. vice president, i know that this room is full of leaders of both parties who love this country and many believe that for america to succeed, our politics must find common ground and that has never been clear than today when armed rioters stormed the u.s. capitol and beholden by president trump's

false rhetoric of the 2020 election. i believe that we in this chambers have a special duty to work together to lower the temperature of our politics. i hope that my colleagues will question the legitimacy of this election in arizona and all of these other states now see the dire and dangerous consequences of sewing doubt and uncertainty. i also know that as u.s. senators, we all take the oath we swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestics. at this moment in history, i can think of nothing than patriotic than renewing our faith in a charter of freedom that our founding fathers crafted for our republic starting with the fundamental american principles and our decoratilaration of in n

independence from the consent of the people. the people have spoken. our only job is to do what they ask is not to argue election security. that's not the place for what we are doing today. our constitutions specifically reserves to the people, the right to meet in a respective states and vote for the president and vice president. as a result, individual states overse oversee and implement the election process to guard against fraud or irregularities of the process. the states are required to have robust election security measures. and our courts from district courts to the united states supreme court, adjudicate legal

challenges and election disputes, all of those things happen afted after the 2020 election. state houses and courts across the country took allegations of voter fraud clearly and followed the constitution process to hear challenges of this year's election. no states found evidence of any widespread fraud and neither any courts asked to review the state's finding. republican attorney general and all certified the results of the election on november 30th, we heard and arizona have been voting by mails for 30 years. governor doocey expressed confidence in the state's process numerous times. we do elections well here in arizona. the system is strong and that's

why i have bragged on it so much. he stated we have some of the strongest election laws in the country. laws that prioritize accountability and clearly lay out our procedures for conducting, canvassing and contesting the results. they are right. arizona has one of the most transparent election process in the country with built-in accountability starting with auditing. we heard unfounding allegations of voting machines in arizona and elsewhere changed vote tallies or somehow rejected ballots while claiming to accept them. these allegations all ignored the fact that arizona counties conducted ballot audits by hand to double check the machine counts and these audits found no

fraud or irregularities. maricopa conducted a post election hand count audit in the week after the election which showed perfect 100% accuracy in the machine tabulations. why would we need to call for a ten-day emergency audit conducted by a legislative commission when it is done by the state of arizona. what happens to state rights? the audit report shows every precinct's machines and hand count totals audited and every single race and every precinct, the difference between the hand count and machine count was zero. maricopa's report stated no discrepancies were found by the hand count audit boards.

seeking to find any reasons to contest these results, some claiming that maricopa failed to follow state's law by selecting voting center locations to audit instead of voting precincts. this is wrong. it went to a court, state court in arizona found the county followed the issue guidance from the arizona secretary of state. the court found maricopa could not perform the audit the way the plaintiff wanted it done. >> senator's five minute is expired. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i would close by saying please my colleagues, do not disenfranchise the voters of arizona and certify their votes

tonight. thank you. >> majority leader. >> i yield the five minutes to the utah senator. >> senator from utah. >> mr. president, the time i prepared my remarks seems like a lifetime ago. >> we'll continue to monitor them them. we heard from senator james langford sounding rational and calm. he was one of the people who had signed onto this attempt to overturn the election results. >> yeah, what's clear is the sobriety of the moment hasover taken some of the emotions we saw and the reality of the implications of what gone on relative to this election has seeped into the consciousness. the question is whether they're going to go through the whole

exercise. i thought one of the most interesting that was said by senator schumer that the stain on our democracy won't be easily washed away. it has been stunning today, not just to hear what americans have said but what the world have said and unthinkable think, the citadel of democracy, the capitol being stormed and the question is will it change people's behavior at all or is this fever seized deeper or people describing the president is the accelerant here and everyone is blaming him because he was the one that inspired this crowd to go down to the capitol and in incendiary way and there is something deeper going on in this country. we need to confront it.

we have these people firmly believe when they went down to the capitol that they were somehow saving their democracy, the president's rally was called the save america's march. they believed this election have been stolen because they have been told that. they have been told that by all the channels that he relies onto propagate those messages and those vicious circles of social media misinformation. this is a fundamental problem and for the republicans who reaped the benefits of it and who are acting of the fear of the mob as it were at the polls and the president himself, people need to evaluate how we are going to break this fever because otherwise, this is just going to be a dismal landmark along a way to ruin.

i hope that we don't move on to sadness. >> it was interpreted that oh, it was not bad or was not trump's supporters or i have seen that kind of stuff. >> yeah, i have seen on other networks and justification for the crowd, they could not be heard any other way. >> i have to say and it would be nice to say this is going to be the moment at which we all come to our census, the trump of trumpism and the end of trump's rationality will reign. it will be harder than that.

>> there seems to be a general agreement for even listening to the tone tonight. this mob was subsidiary to donald trump and the paragraph would not have happened without the president inciting this and the way he did and the way donald trump jr. did this morning. what was striking to me was listening to mike pence geagain. this is his day where he certify the election and he finally said to donald trump i have got to do this because it is what the constitution demands. tonight he says to the mob and the terrorists. violence never win and freedom wins. the video of what the president did today, "we love you."

it is very different. >> i think it is upsetting when it actually happens to you in the building when you had to be evacuated. >> he was forced into this position because you are either with trump or against him at this point. i think mike pence tonight came out and said, guys, you didn't win and the president is living to fight another day on this . >> i believe sometimes this much unity can open the door. there are some good stuff that's happening. pence did come out before all this and stuff of the constitution and walked away

from the president, that was good. mcconnell gave a speech that any american that loves the american constitution left or right could endorse. biden came out and gave a beautiful speech that brings us together. you did have a muiracle in georgia where you are going to have a southern state represented by young jewish kids. something beautiful is happening, you have to believe it and see it. the over reach of these mobs, these trump rioters, it is an over reach. >> yeah, i think we are at a

sobering moment that what you are seeing in the united states senate, i don't think you are going to see three objections. i think this is going to be the only debate. and i think everybody wants this date to end as quickly as possible and try to pick up and move forward. i am encouraged by the comments from both sides of the isle and i would just say that is a great place to start. i would caution everybody that's active on social media and everybody else on both sides, maybe we can learn a lesson and tone down the temperature. joe biden will not be successful if we continue the rhetoric at the level that we have seen. this horrible thing we are

seeing, let's step back and not be like we want to be and we have a new president coming in a few days. >> jim sciutto is standing by, he has new reporting on the ground. what are you learning? >> reporter: i am on independence avenue, outside the capitol. you can see it there and the flags are up because they are in session. i want to zridescribe to you th security now deployed around the capitol. the squad cars you can see there. that whole line of cars up the hill there, that's police. it continues the lengths down to independence avenue and every couple of minutes we'll see a convoy of police on foot or sometimes on vehicles. i have covered elections around the world, i have never seen a security presence like this in my experience. the only comparison as i was

sitting here watching this may have been the parliamentary and with the threat of terrorism all around. but to see this today is alarming. >> jim, i am wondering where were they early in the day when it was known that there is going to be in huge rally. we have known it for weeks and we knew the president was going to speak at it and incendiary. i don't understand what happened here. >> it makes no sense. >> reporter: i spent the afternoon speaking to people, they can't explain it. remember the capitol hill shooting, two officers were killed. they revamped the entire security and created a whole new underground entrance to protect people inside.

people's lives were in danger. it is an enormous security failure. that's the second headline beyond the shock of course is how this was allowed to happen. >> whether it is capitol police -- >> reporter: what steps to prevent for it to happen again. >> there is a huge failure here, department of homeland security needs to be looked into. jim, i appreciate you being out there. we got video of the fatal shooting of the capitol today. it is not easy to watch. we think it is important because this actually happened in that context. if you rather not watch, now is the time to look away. it is 11 seconds.

>> there is no sound on this recording. it is hard to see but you may have seen a gun pointed at the female in the building, seems to be in a door way going up into the opening of the door way and a shot rang out and two people joining us there. john, you filmed this moment on your phone. can you describe what happened? >> basically all protesters kind of stormed to get into the chamber. we tried to get into the main entrance right when you walked down the holloway but that being

said no one was able to get in because two guards refuse to move. people there did not want to hurt the police, they went down different alley way. they went to the main entrance and took to the right hallway and entering into the glass window that you see. there were about four or five police officers at the forefront and i remember just coming up and seeing one of them crying saying they want to go home to their kids and like -- >> one of the officers? >> one of the police office officers -- you see thousands of protesters kinds of merging on them and yelling, let us unhein here, we are not trying to hurt you. i ended up talking to a few of them.

we can make a path and no means on the trump's side or maga side, i don't want to see people get hurt necessarily especially there should be a better way to go about this. i allow and told everybody, they're will to go peacefully and put down their arms. >> how was this lady shot? she was trying to get through the door and did you see who shot her? >> i was get to that part. after they start breaking through the glass, once they broke through the glass, they're using flag polls and whateves a they had to bash through the windows. all we see is these guns coming out the door way, just guns and all you can see is their hands.

you could not see faces. right when i saw that, guys, there is guns, you don't want to go through there. they're fwoigoing to shoot. the second that she climbed through the window, she got shot right in the neck area and fell backwards and i just remember like the sense of shock and sorry that somebody just died and did not need to die because she didn't have a weapon and she was not violent. we were not trying to hurt anybody at that moment in time. >> just to be clear was it a police officer who shot her? >> i don't know if it was police or private security guard. i assume it is police of everything that we have met up to that point. >> rioters were trying to get

into, is that what you are basing on? was it an area where some of these rioters were already inside of or was it an area that they're trying to get into that the shot came from. >> it was an area that was completely blocked off that had chairs up against the door way and tables so people could not get in. no one had been in there. >> okay. obviously it is chaotic, i appreciate talking to you and we are obviously trying to -- i know there are other angles on this and we are trying to learn more. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. i want to continue the discussion about what occurred today. we are getting more and more images in throughout the last couple of hours. let's look back into the proceedings that are ongoing on capitol hill right now.

>> mr. vice president, i can only think of two times in america's history that individuals seized our capitol and stormed our civic spaces and tried to overrun this government, one was in the war of 1812 and the other one was today. it was interesting about the parallel between the two is they both were waving flags to a soul sovereign to an individual surrendering democratic principle, one was a monarch england and the other was a flag i saw all over our capitol including the hallways and in this room to a single person named donald trump. we have had differences through

times, this time we brought this hell upon ourselves. my colleague from texas said this was a moment where they were unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, yes, that's true. they were unprecedented when the president before the election even said "if i lose this election, then the election is rigged." that's unprecedented. it is unprecedented the night before the voting even the counting of the vote was done that he called it rigged. it is unprecedented that he's fanning the flames of conspiracy theory to create a smoke scream in this nation to cover what he's trying to do which is undermine our democratic

principles but it is not just that. the shame of this day is being aided and abetted by good americans who are falling prey and choosing trump over truths and who are surrendering to the passion of lies as oppose to standing up and speaking truth to power who are trying to fundraise off of the shame of the conspiracy theories as opposed to do the valuable patriotic thing to speak truth to our nation. our democracy is wounded and i saw it when i saw pictures of another insurgency of a flag of another group of americans who tried to challenge our nation, i saw the flag of the confederacy

there. what will we do? how will we confront this dark, second time of america's history. i pray that we'll remember a georgian and his words, all i can say is we must join together like those georgians, join hands who are calling threats to our democracy and who are calling outrageous when they sought to expand our democracy, to save it and heal it and joining arms and arms. we should say now, together that we shall overcome. >> majority leader. >> i yield my five minutes to the senator of nebraska. >> senator from nebraska. >> mr. president, thank you.

mr. vice president, i want to say before we began, thank you for you fulfilling your oath of office today and obviously it has not been easy. colleagues, today has been ugliment whugly. when i came to the floor this morning, i plan to talk about the lesson of 1801 because i am a history blood and i want to celebrate the glory and transfer of power, feels naive now. 1801 blew everybody's minds all over the world. john adams loses to thomas jefferson. adams willingly leaves the mansion and moves back to massachusetts and jefferson peacef peacefully accepted power. people must say fake news. adams in defeat did something

glorious to give all of us a gift. it feels harder, this building has been decembsecrated and blo have been spilled. i was with members of this chamber it was ugly today. but you know what? it turns out that when something is ugly, talking about beauty isn't just permissible. talking about beauty is obligatory at a time like that. why? why would we talk about beauty after the ugliness of today? because our kids need to know this isn't what america is. what happened today isn't what america is. they have been given a glorious inheritance. this is the 59th presidential election that the vice president

wasn't the chair and if the president proterm was i would joke that chuck grassley voted in two-thirds of those presidential elections. he's laughing. it's not as good as dear dad, but it's still not a grassley laugh. i don't want to tell the americas that come after this that this republic is broken, that our institutions can't be trusted. we don't want this in our body. we don't want that in our hometowns. we don't want to tell america that our best days are behind us because that's not true. that's not who we are. america isn't hatfields and mccoys, blood field forever. america is a union. there is a lot that's broken in this country but not anything that's so big that the american people can't rebuild it, that freedom and community and even tra pra neural neighborhoods

can't be fixed. generations of our forefathers and our foremothers -- probably not a word, our ancestors have spilled blood to defend the glories of this republic. why would they do that? because america is the most exceptional nation in the history of the world and because the constitution is the greatest political document that's ever been written. most governments in the past have said might makes right, and we saw some of that nutry today. might makes right. no, it doesn't. god gives us rights by nature and government is just our shared project to secure those rights. america has always been about what we choose to do together. the way we reaffirm our constitutional system where we have some governmental tasks and we all in this body could do better at those tasks, but the heart of america is our government. the center of america is not washington, d.c. it is the neighborhoods where

330 million americans are raising their kids and trying to love their neighbor. that's the center of america. we're not supposed to be the most important people in america. we're supposed to be servant leaders who maintain an order for liberty so there is a structure they can get from the silver frame of structure and order to the golden apple at the center as washington would have said it which is the things they build together, the places where they coach little league, the places where they invite people to synagogue and church. sometimes the big things we do together with instrumental like kicking hitler's ass or going to the moon. but the heart of america is where moms and dads are raising kids by maintaining order and rejecting violence. you can't do things like that if you hate your neighbors. you can't do big things together as americans if you think other americans are the enemy. there is a lot of uncertainty about the future.

i get it. there is a lot that does need to be rebuilt. but if you're angry, i want to beg you don't let the screamers who monetize hate have the final word. don't let nihilists become your drug dealers. there are some that want to burn it all down. we met some of them today. but they're not going to win. don't let them be your profetes. shovel somebody's driveway. you can't hate somebody that just shovelled your driveway. the heart of life is about community and neighborhood and we're supposed to be servant leaders. the constitutional system is still the greater order for any government ever and it is our job to steward it and protect it. let's remember that today when we vote. >> democratic leader -- senator

durbin. >> senator from illinois. >> thank you, mr. vice president. >> in march of 1861, a springfield lawyer caught a train to washington. his name was abraham lincoln. it wasn't his first trip here. he served as congressman 15 years before, and he returned in the beginning of the civil war to serve as president. it was a different place than we knew it as a congressman. in 15 years it had changed a lot. the boarding house across the street which is now the library of congress was gone and this building was changing, big changes. they were building a dome on the capital. but they were also in the earliest days of the war, and president lincoln was council. stop building the dome. it costs too much money and he spend more time on it. he said, no, we're going to build that dome and we're going

to finish it. that dome and this building will be a symbol of this country that will survive this civil war and come back strong. so they built the dome. they won the war and since those days that dome and this building have been a symbol to this country, a symbol of unity and of hope. tourists come through here before covid-19 by the tens of thousands. and if you have ever noticed their tours, they're often shushed. people are saying show some respect for this building. we know this building in the rotunda as a place where some of the greatest american heroes of both political parties lie in state and we go there to honor them. we know this building because we work here. we enact laws here that change america. we gather for state of the union, messages for presidents

and honor the people in the gallery. this is a special place. this is a sacred place. but this sacred place was desecrated by a mob today. on our watch. this temple to democracy was defiled by thugs where roamed the halls and sat in that chair, mr. vice president, the one you vacated at 2:15 this afternoon, sat and posed for pictures, those who were roaming around this chamber. what brought this on? did this mob spring spontaneously from america? no. this mob was invited to come to washington on this day by this president for one reason, because he knew the electoral college vote was going to be counted this day. he wanted this mob to disrupt the constitutional process which

we are a part of. this mob was inspired by a president who cannot accept defeat. if you wonder whether i'm going too far, just read the transcript with the secretary of state from georgia and listen to this president's wild conspiracy theories one after the another swatted down by that one republican and his attorney as having no basis in fact. this president begs. he coaxes. he even threatens that secretary of state to find the votes he needs. in any other venue that would be a simple obvious crime. the lengths he will go to are obvious. the texas senator says, well, many people still agree with him when it gets down to the bottom line. many people have fallen for this

presidential position that it must have been a rigged election if i lost. well, i would say that after, we have lost count, 57 lawsuits, 62 lawsuits. i have read so many numbers. after 90 different judges, after this president took his case the best he could put together to the highest court in the land across the street where he had personally chosen three justices on the supreme court, i say to the senator from texas you know much about that court than i do. i don't believe they let that paper that he sent up there even hit the desk before they laughed it out of the court. and that's the best he had to offer. no evidence whatsoever of this rigged election and this fraudulence. the senator from texas says we just want to create a little commission. 10 days we're going to audit all of the states. particularly the ones in contention here and find out what actually occurred. and it really draws -- it's

parallel. 1876 hayes and tildon. don't forget what that commission, that so-called political compromise achieved. it was not just some ordinary governmental commission. it was a commission that killed reconstruction that established jim crow that even after a civil war in which tore this nation apart, it reenslaved african-americans and it was a commission that invited the voter suppression we are still fighting today in america. let me close by saying this. the vote we're going to have here is a clear choice of whether we are going to feed the beast of ignorance or we are going to tell the truth to the american people. we saw that beast today roaming the halls. let's not invite it back. >> majority leader. >> present. i yield five minutes t