Congress certifies Biden’s win

After the U.S. Capitol faced a day of violent unrest, Congress early on Thursday confirmed Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. The Senate and House had reconvened after 8 p.m. on Wednesday once police secured the building with the help of the National Guard. “Criminal behavior will never dominate the United States Congress,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Senate. “This institution is resilient.” The legislators worked into the early morning hours to certify that Biden secured 306 electoral votes to President Donald Trump’s 232 votes. Challenges against the votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania both failed. Some GOP senators who had said they would accept efforts to overturn the results from key swing states changed their minds after the rioting. “The events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider,” said Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who was defeated in a runoff election in Georgia the day before.

What comes next? Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in at noon on Jan. 20. In a statement released by social media aide Dan Scavino, Trump said “there will be an orderly transition,” although he still objected to the election’s outcome. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram locked Trump’s accounts over policy violations.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s account in The Stew of her experience inside the Capitol during the lockdown.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.