The Senate faces a challenge to the election of Pres. Joe Biden in Arizona overwhelmingly turned down and guaranteed that the outcome would remain.
The objection to the results in Arizona, led by rep. Paul Gosar and Senator Ted Cruz, were rejected 93-6 on Wednesday night. All the votes for it come from Republicans, but after violent protesters tampered with the Capitol earlier Wednesday, a number of GOP senators who planned to support the objection reversed.
Republicans brought the objection based on false allegations made by President Donald Trump and others about issues with the vote in Arizona, which were repeatedly dismissed in Arizona’s courts and by state election officials.
Republican was among the congressional leaders, including Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and James Imhoff, who took the podium in the Senate and rejected the violence that took place at the Capitol earlier in the day.
Several Republican senators have reversed the course and now say they will not object to the certification of Congress by President-elect Joe Biden.
Sens. Steve Daines of Montana, Mike Braun of Indiana and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia have all said in light of the violence that they will amount to planned objections to Biden’s victory.
Loeffler said the “violence, lawlessness and siege of the halls of Congress” was a “direct attack” on the “sanctity of the American democratic process.”
All three had earlier signed on to Trump’s false allegations of widespread voter fraud to explain his defeat. Loeffler has only days left in her term. She lost her Senate race against Democrat Raphael Warnock earlier Wednesday.
Officials declared the U.S. Capitol complex ‘safe’.
At least one woman was shot dead, though it is not clear who pulled the trigger during the chaotic scene.
A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to hide, in a blatant attempt to overthrow the U.S. presidential election, undermine the country’s democracy, and Democrat Joe Pray to prevent Trump from replacing Trump in the White House.
The National Guard and the state and federal police were called in for control, and the mayor of Washington instituted a rare curfew rule.
The country’s elected representatives scurry under the desks and put on gas marks, while police try in vain to block the building, one of the most shocking scenes that ever unfolded in a seat of American political power.
WATCH: Full coverage of the chaos at the Capitol
The rioters were stunned by Trump, who for weeks falsely attacked the integrity of the election and urged his supporters to come to Washington to protest Congress’ formal approval of Biden’s victory. Some Republican lawmakers were amid objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly stopped by the mob.
Several sources told ABC News that talks were taking place among some members of Trump’s cabinet and some of his allies about the 25th amendment, which could be used by cabinet members to remove President Trump from office.
It was not clear how extensive these talks were, and whether Vice President Pence supported such actions, ABC News reported.
Unlike a few tweets and the minute-long video, Trump is largely disconnected from occupying a headquarters of the country’s government.
MORE: Twitter shuts down Trump account after tweets about DC protesters were removed
Together, the protests and the GOP election objections amounted to an almost unimaginable challenge to American democracy and exposed the depth of the divisions waged through the country during Trump’s four years. Although the attempts to make Biden swear on January 20 would surely fail, the support Trump received for his attempts to overthrow the election results severely hampered the country’s democratic reins.
Congress again called for hours and promised to confirm the Electoral College’s vote for Biden’s election, even if it lasted all night.
Vice President Mike Pence, who reopened the session, addressed the protesters directly: “You did not win.”
WATCH: Vice President Pence addresses Congress as resumption of Electoral College certification
The president gave his supporters a boost on Wednesday morning during a rally outside the White House, urging them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room outside the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television. At the urging of his staff, he reluctantly released a few tweets and a recorded video in which he told his supporters that it was time to ‘go home in peace’ – yet he said he supported their cause.
A somberly-elected President Biden, two weeks away from the inauguration, said American democracy was “under unprecedented attack”, a sentiment reflected by many in Congress, including some Republicans. Former President George W. Bush has said he has watched the events in “disbelief and dismay”.
WATCH: Joe Biden calls on the Capitol gang to ‘retreat’, urges to restore decency
The domed Capitol building has been the scene of protests and occasional violence for centuries. But Wednesday’s events were particularly astonishing, both because it unfolded at least initially with the implicit blessing of the president and because of the underlying goal of overthrowing the results of a free and fair presidential election.
Tensions were already running high when lawmakers gathered early Wednesday afternoon for the constitutional count of the election college results, in which Biden defeated Trump, 306-232. Despite pleas from Republican Senate MP Mitch McConnell, more than 150 GOP lawmakers planned to support objections to some of the results, although they had no evidence of fraud or misconduct in the election.
WATCH: Mitch McConnell breaks down from Trump in blasphemous speech
Trump spent the run-up to the proceedings in public to help Pence, who had a largely ceremonial role in the proceedings, help the effort. He tweeted Wednesday, “Do it Mike, it’s a time for extreme courage!”
But Pence teased Trump in a statement shortly before his attack, saying he could not demand “unilateral authority” to reject the election votes that make Biden president.
Shortly after the first GOP objections, protesters fought past police and trampled on the building, shouting and waving Trump and American flags as they marched through the halls. Lawmakers were told to cover under their seats and put on gas masks after tear gas was used in the Capitol Rotunda. Some House lawmakers tweeted that they were hiding in their offices.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-California, told reporters he was in the living room when rioters started storming it. Security officers “let us all down, you could see they were repelling some kind of assault, it seemed. They had a piece of furniture against the door, the door, the floor access from the Rotunda, and they drew guns, said Peters.
“And they just told us we had to take out our pens,” he added, referring to clothespins worn by Capitol police so they could quickly identify. Then the legislators were evacuated.
Staff members grabbed the boxes with the votes of the Electoral College when the evacuation took place. Otherwise, says Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., The ballots would probably have been destroyed by the protesters.
RELATED: Ballot papers in the Electoral College were rescued as protesters stormed the US capital, the senator said
Vice President Kamala Harris, who attended the session, was among those led to safety.
As they were leaving, protesters marched around the halls shouting, “Where are they?” One climbed onto the Senate scene and shouted, “Trump won that election.”
More than a dozen people were arrested.
SEE ALSO: US lawmakers respond to DC protests that shut down the Capitol
Trump supporters who are popular on internet forums that are popular among extreme right-wing fringe elements have celebrated the chaos. Messages placed on one changed from cursing frustration over the content of Trump’s speech to joy as supporters stormed the building. At least one leading figure was a live video from inside the Capitol during the siege.
The storm of the mob on Congress caused double indignation, mostly from Democrats but also from Republicans, while lawmakers accused Trump of fueling the violence with his relentless falsehoods about election fraud. Several have suggested that Trump be prosecuted for a crime that seems unlikely two weeks after his term expires.
“I think Donald Trump should probably be followed up with treason for something like that,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-California, told reporters. “This is how a coup begins. And this is how democracy dies.”
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Who sometimes clashed with Trump, issued a written statement saying, “Lies have consequences. This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the president’s addiction to incite constant divisions. “
Despite Trump’s repeated allegations of voter fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general said there were no issues on the scale that would change the outcome. All states have confirmed their results as fair and accurate by Republican and Democratic officials.
The Pentagon said about 1,100 members of Columbia District’s National Guard are being mobilized to support law enforcement at the Capitol. More than a dozen people were arrested.
When darkness began to fall, law enforcement officers turned to the protesters and used percussion grenades to try to clear the area around the Capitol. Large clouds of tear gas were visible. Police in full riot equipment moved down the stairs and clashed with protesters.
Pence was closely watched as he stepped onto the scene to present the first joint sitting in the living room.
Pence played a largely ceremonial role by opening the sealed envelopes of the states after being carried in mahogany boxes used for the occasion and reading the results. But he was under increasing pressure from Trump to overthrow the will of the electorate and tip the results in the president’s favor, even though he had no legal authority to influence the outcome.
“Do it Mike, it’s a time for extreme courage!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
MORE: Rioter enters Nancy Pelosi’s office, takes photos with feet on her desk
But Pence had defied Trump in a statement shortly before, saying he could not demand “unilateral authority” to reject the election votes that make Biden president.
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