'It would damage our republic forever': McConnell rebukes attempt to overturn election

Louisville Courier Journal

Shortly before rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a fiery rebuke Wednesday afternoon to his colleagues objecting to the certification of the Electoral College's votes from certain states that declared President-elect Joe Biden the victor.

Speaking from the Senate floor, the Kentucky Republican said that he has served in the Senate for 36 years and that "this will be the most important vote I have ever cast."

"Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election," McConnell said. "... The Constitution gives us here in Congress a limited role. We cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids."

He continued: "The voters, the courts, the states — they've all spoken. They've all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever. This election actually was not unusually close. Just in recent history, 1976, 2000 and 2004 were all closer than this one."

McConnell concluded by saying that "it would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the courts and the states on this extraordinarily thin basis."

“And I will not pretend such a vote would be a harmless protest gesture while relying on others to do the right thing," McConnell said. “I will vote to respect the people’s decision and defend our system of government as we know it.”

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These remarks came before supporters of President Donald Trump, many appearing to be armed, stormed the U.S. Capitol — forcing both chambers to enter a recess and the building to go on lockdown.

Photos and video from reporters inside the Capitol show shattered glass, confrontations between law enforcement and rioters, and rioters taking the podium in each chamber of Congress.

A woman was shot inside the Capitol and taken to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. The Pentagon said the Washington, D.C., National Guard has been mobilized to support local law enforcement. By late afternoon, 13 people — all from outside the area — had been arrested.

As a 6 p.m. curfew took effect, police in riot gear stood outside the Capitol and held protesters at bay, having secured the premises a few hours after rioters broke in through smashed windows and climbed to the building's balconies. Police used tear gas and percussion grenades to disperse the mob.

Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the Senate debate, was reportedly evacuated to a safe location.

Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon — before Twitter locked his account for violating its rules — that Pence "didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"

Pence had no power to overturn the results of the election.

Around 5:30 p.m., officials declared the Capitol complex “secure” after heavily armed police moved to end a nearly four-hour violent occupation by Trump supporters.

McConnell's remarks were the first in a Senate debate that came after an objection was raised to the certification of Arizona's 11 electoral votes to Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, and 60 other House colleagues.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, joined the objection, which sent both houses of Congress back to their respective chambers for up to two hours of debate on the objection.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a joint session of Congress would reconvene Wednesday night to count the Electoral College votes confirming Biden's win. McConnell also reportedly urged colleagues to return to the Senate to finish the certification of the results.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed, with no evidence, that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and that the election was rigged.

McConnell's comments came as tension continues to grow between him and Trump, who has been pressuring the majority leader to overturn the results of the election. McConnell first publicly recognized Biden's victory on Dec. 15 — one day after the former vice president formally won the Electoral College.

In response, Trump wrote in a tweet directed at McConnell that it was "too soon to give up" on the election and that the "Republican Party must finally learn to fight." The president also later claimed, without evidence, that he "saved" McConnell from losing his reelection bid to former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath (which McConnell won by 20 points).

Kentucky's other senator, Rand Paul, said early Wednesday afternoon that he would speak on the Senate floor about the objection: "America is admired around the world for our free elections. We must, we absolutely must, fix this mess and restore confidence and integrity to our elections."

Paul previously had made several false claims about the election and once said during a congressional hearing in December that the election "in many ways was stolen."

Later in the afternoon, after the rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Paul wrote in a series of tweets that he was "planning to say I fear the chaos of establishing a precedent that Congress can overturn elections."

"Boy, was I right," he wrote. "Chaos. Anarchy. It’s wrong and un-American. The vote we are about to cast is important. Now more than ever. The question is: Should Congress override the certified results from the states and nullify the states’ right to conduct elections?"

He continued: "The vote today is not a protest; the vote today is literally to overturn the election! Voting to overturn state-certified elections would be the opposite of what states’ rights Republicans have always advocated for."

Paul concluded by saying that "as the nation’s anger cools, we can channel that energy into essential electoral reforms in every state." He did not specify what electoral reforms he'd like to see.

"It is one thing to be angry," the Kentucky Republican wrote. "It is another to focus one’s anger in a constructive way. That hasn’t happened today, to say the least. We simply cannot destroy the Constitution, our laws, and the electoral college in the process."

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USA TODAY contributed to this report. Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.