Pro-Trump Mob Attack on USA Parliament

• The U.S. Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the presidential election winner after a violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in a stunning attempt to overturn the presidential election.
• Lawmakers were resolved to complete the Electoral College tally in a display to the country, and the world, of the nation’s enduring commitment to uphold the will of the voters and the peaceful transfer of power. They pushed through the night, with tensions high and the nation’s capital on alert.
• The lawmakers confirmed that Mr. Biden had won the election. Mr. Trump, who repeatedly refused to concede the election, said in a statement immediately after the vote that there would be a smooth transition of power on Inauguration Day (20 January).
• The Capitol was under siege, as the nation’s elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas masks while the police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power.
• A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and Washington’s Mayor instituted an evening curfew to contain the violence.

• The rioters were egged on by Mr. Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest against Congress’ formal approval of Mr. Biden’s victory.
• Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly halted by the mob.
• Congress reconvened in the evening, with lawmakers decrying the protests and vowing to finish confirming the Electoral College vote for Mr. Biden’s election, even if it took all night.
• The President gave his supporters a boost into action on Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room off the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television.
• A sombre President-elect Biden, two weeks away from being inaugurated, said American democracy was “under unprecedented assault”, a sentiment echoed by many in Congress, including some Republicans. Former President George W. Bush said he watched the events in “disbelief and dismay”.

History of Capitol Attacks

• The domed Capitol building has for centuries been the scene of protests and occasional violence.
• In more than 220 years, the US Capitol had seen nothing like it: a roiling mob, forcing its way past its majestic marble columns, disrupting the passage of power, desecrating the seat of the world’s greatest democracy.
• But this was far from the first time the Capitol has been scarred by violence.
• In 1814, just 14 years after the building opened, British forces in the War of 1812 tried to burn it down. The invaders looted the building first and then set the southern and northern wings ablaze incinerating the Library of Congress. A sudden rainstorm prevented its total destruction, but the building was left “a most magnificent ruin,” according to architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
• The building has been bombed many times. There have been shootings. One legislator almost killed another.
• The most famous episode occurred in 1954, when four Puerto Rican nationalists unfurled the island’s flag and, shouting “Freedom for Puerto Rico,” unleashed a barrage of about 30 shots from the visitor’s gallery of the House. Five congressmen were injured, one of them seriously.
• Before and since the building has been a target. In 1915, a German man planted three sticks of dynamite in the Senate reception room; it went off shortly before midnight when no one was around.
• More recently, the Weather Underground set off an explosive in 1971 to protest the U.S. bombing of Laos, and the May 19^th Communist Movement bombed the Senate in 1983 in response to the invasion of Grenada. Neither caused any deaths or injuries, but both resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and led to tougher security measures.
• The most deadly attack on the Capitol occurred in 1998 when a mentally ill man fired at a checkpoint and killed two Capitol Police officers.