Democracy defiled: Trail of destruction left inside US Capitol after Trump’s mob trashed offices

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Shocking images today revealed the trail of destruction inside the US Capitol after hundreds of Donald Trump‘s mob ransacked the seat of American democracy to demand Joe Biden‘s election be overturned.

Lecterns piled like trash, windows smashed, statues of heroes vandilized, dossiers strewn across office floors and telephones ripped from the walls lay among the tattered signage of the president’s rabble: ‘Treason’, said one banner, ‘Stop the Steal,’ another.

Trump finally accepted his fate this morning after Vice President Mike Pence ended his desperate campaign to overturn the election by certifying Biden’s win before Congress in the early hours of Thursday.

Congressmen were seen down on their knees today picking up debris alongside police officers as dawn broke on the carnage that left four dead in Washington DC and terrified lawmakers who hid in their rooms and under seats in the chamber.

Footage from inside the offices of the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, shows how the furious Trump supporters ripped open her filing cabinets, broke windows and trashed furniture after they forced their way inside.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suite of offices were also targeted by the rioters who smashed a mirror, cracked the Democrat’s nameplate and left a menacing message scrawled on a file: ‘WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.’

A laughing Trump protester was even pictured leaning back in Pelosi’s chair with his feet up on her desk as hundreds of Representatives and Senators feared for their lives. 

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The extent of the damage remains unclear, as does knowledge of what may have been looted from the building which is filled with priceless artefacts and sensitive documents – both paper and digital – which are kept in the offices of lawmakers. 

Trump finally accepted his fate this morning after Pence ended his desperate campaign to overturn the election and certified Biden’s win in the early hours of the morning as lawmakers thrashed out the process to verify the result of the Electoral College which had infuriated the MAGA mob.

Trump said there would be an ‘orderly transition’ – a hallmark of American democracy he had repeatedly called into question – but still claimed falsely that the election was stolen despite 50 states, a series of judges and now the U.S. Congress dismissing challenges to the result. 

‘Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20,’ Trump said in a statement that aides posted on Twitter after the president’s account was locked for stirring up violence. 

‘I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted,’ Trump said. ‘While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again.’ 

Pence made the final announcement after a nearly 15-hour saga that saw rioting supporters of President Trump mob the U.S. Capitol Building in a day of carnage and shame that left four dead, saw pipe bombs, long guns and Molotov cocktails discovered in the Capitol grounds – and left America’s image as the beacon of democracy reeling. 

The MAGA mob – which included white supremacists, Holocaust deniers and Q Anon followers – interrupted the certification of results as they smashed through police barricades, stormed into the halls of the Capitol and even sat in the Senate chamber.

They looted offices, vandalized statues and confronted police as they rampaged through the Capitol, carrying Confederate flags, in hours of anarchy which shocked the world and which Biden called an ‘insurrection’. 

As the world watched in disbelief, many were shocked at how easily the invaders had breached the hallways of American democracy – contrasting the lax security with the heavy-handed crackdowns ordered by Trump at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.  

Even as intruders desecrated the Capitol, Trump was said to be reluctant to deploy the National Guard, with reports saying that he ‘rebuffed and resisted’ the request before Pence and others finally made it happen. 

Lawmakers were rushed off the floor of the House and Senate – and brought back at 8pm under armed guard while outside the mob defied a curfew in D.C. The president who had whipped them into fury tweeted: ‘You are special. You are loved.’ 

One woman – 14-year Air Force veteran Ashli Babbit – was shot dead inside the building, with three others dead from unspecified ‘medical emergencies’ during the chaos.

Washington police chief Robert Contee said 14 police were injured, one of them pulled into a crowd and assaulted. 52 people were arrested. 

Congress’ overwhelming rejection of attempts to overturn the vote and Pence’s role in it will surely further enrage Trump, who wanted his VP to unilaterally overrule Biden’s win – and he was left further isolated by the resignation of multiple White House aides including former press secretary Stephanie Grisham.  

The president was banished from Twitter for 12 hours Wednesday due to violating the company’s rules meaning he could not vent on his favorite medium. The ban is due to expire at 5am Thursday morning. 

With just 13 days left of his presidency, Trump is now at war with Mitch McConnell, facing whispers of his own cabinet trying to force him out and Democrats openly discussing impeaching him again – while just a handful of senators led by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and the majority of the House GOP remain loyal. 

It was Hawley who forced Congress to sit late into the night. Biden was at 244 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed when a final challenge of Pennsylvania’s count pushed lawmakers back into their respective chambers.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell skipped the two hours of permitted debate and went straight to a vote. 

The upper chamber voted 92-7 to overrule the Republicans’ objection – with some Republicans changing sides to vote with the majority after the carnage of the preceding hours.

‘We don’t expect additional votes tonight,’ McConnell said when things were done. McConnell had been against the GOP effort to challenge the Electoral College vote counts from the beginning.

The House proceeded with debate and then voted 282 to 138 to overrule the challenge of Pennsylvania, with 64 Republicans voting alongside Democrats to make up the majority. 

Both houses have to vote in favor of a challenge for it to succeed.

Republicans in the House and Senate had earlier challenged the votes in Arizona – which prompted two hours of debate, interrupted by the MAGA riot – and that objection was overwhelmingly overruled.

House Republicans also tried to challenge the results in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, but GOP senators would no longer sign on after the day’s dramatic events.

‘Mr. President prior to the actions and events of today we did but following the events of today it appears that some senators have withdrawn their objection,’ admitted Georgia Rep. Jody Hice when challenging the results in his state.