Good morning. A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. Members of Congress — after fleeing for their safety — voted to confirm Biden’s victory. |
 | | Supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol yesterday.Win Mcnamee/Getty Images |
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They listened to the president |
Donald Trump has been attacking American democracy for much of his time as president. |
He has told repeated lies about voter fraud, undermining people’s confidence in elections. He has defied parts of the Constitution. He has spent his final weeks in office pressuring other government officials to overturn the result of an election he lost. He has occasionally encouraged his supporters to commit violence. |
Yesterday, hundreds of those supporters decided to take Trump literally. |
They fought their way through armed police, smashed windows and stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. They then spent several hours inside the building, vandalizing offices and the House floor. They injured at least 14 law enforcement officers. Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress and others fled for their safety. |
In the end, the rioters — and Trump — will fail in their effort to keep him in power. At about 3:45 a.m., Congress did confirm Biden’s victory. Thirteen days from now, he will take the oath of office and become president of the United States. |
But a physical assault on the nation’s seat of government is no small thing. And it was not a onetime event. It was a logical extension of the message that Trump has long been telling his supporters — that American democracy is a fraud, that his opponents are traitors and that his allies need to fight back. |
“We’re seeing more and more citizens expressing openness to violence,” Lee Drutman, a political scientist, told me almost three months ago, “as more and more partisan leaders engage in the kinds of dehumanizing rhetoric that paves the way for taking violent action.” |
Trump, speaking to the protesters at a rally hours before they burst into the Capitol, referred to his political opponents as “bad people” and “the enemy of the people.” He described his allies as “warriors” and encouraged them to stop “fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back.” He added, “We’re going to have to fight much harder.” |
At the same rally, Rudy Giuliani said that Trump’s opponents should go to jail and added, “Let’s have trial by combat.” And Donald Trump Jr., addressing congressional Republicans who planned to split from his father, said: “We’re coming for you, and we’re going to have a good time doing it.” |
After the violence, Trump himself wrote on social media, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.” |
Trump’s efforts are failing in large part because a significant number of Republicans have refused to go along with him. But many other high-level Republicans have echoed and encouraged him. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and dozens of other members of Congress have fanned voters’ anger by promoting Trump’s lies about the election. (Here’s a list of Congress members who did so yesterday.) They have joined his attempts to undermine the American system of government. |
“This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” Senator Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican, yelled as the rioters breached the Capitol yesterday. He was addressing his colleagues who have supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election. |
Shortly afterward, uniformed police officers evacuated senators and reporters from the chamber to the basement, before rushing them through underground tunnels to a secure location in a Senate office building. There, Romney saw Jonathan Martin, a Times reporter, and called for Jonathan to come over and talk. In 15 years of covering him, Jonathan said he had never seen Romney so alarmed. |
 | | Trump loyalists and the police clashed outside the Capitol.Leah Millis/Reuters |
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 | | Capitol Police trying to prevent pro-Trump extremists from entering the House chamber.J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press |
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 | | President Trump spoke to his supporters, directing them toward the Capitol.Pete Marovich for The New York Times |
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 | | Police officers in riot gear after security was breached at the Capitol.Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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 | | Members of Congress ran for cover as pro-Trump extemists tried to break into the House chamber.Drew Angerer/Getty Images |
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 | | A crowd gathered on the west front of the Capitol.Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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 | | Senator Josh Hawley gestured to Trump supporters outside the Capitol.Francis Chung/E&E News and Politico, via Associated Press |
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- A woman shot by the police — inside the Capitol, during the mayhem — has died. Washington police said that three other people also died in the area around the Capitol yesterday “from separate medical emergencies.”
- Trump said in a statement early this morning that there would be “an orderly transition” on Jan. 20.
- A bomb squad destroyed a pipe bomb that was found at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington. Officials also discovered a suspicious package at the nearby Democratic National Committee office and evacuated it.
- Twitter and Facebook temporarily locked Trump’s accounts, after he had issued statements that mixed praise for the rioters and calls for peace.
- The police appeared unprepared for the onslaught, which Trump loyalists had discussed openly on social media sites like Gab and Parler. Trump initially rebuffed requests to send the National Guard to the Capitol. Pence eventually approved the order.
- Derrick Evans, a newly elected Republican state lawmaker from West Virginia, was part of the crowd that rushed into the Capitol.
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- “The incredible show of force that we saw in DC this summer… Where is it?” Abby Phillip, a CNN political correspondent, wrote, referring to the aggressive presence of law enforcement during Black Lives Matter protests.
- Former President George W. Bush said he was “appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions and our law enforcement.”
- Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said: “These pictures made me angry and sad. But I am sure: American democracy will prove to be much stronger than the aggressors and rioters.”
- James Mattis, former defense secretary under Trump, said: “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump.”
- “Not everyone storming the Capitol is QAnon, but make no mistake: this wouldn’t have happened without QAnon, the politicians and partisan media figures who cynically embraced it, and the platforms that amplified it for years,” Kevin Roose, a Times tech columnist, wrote.
- “This is not dissent,” Biden said in a speech as the chaos was unfolding. “It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition and it must end now.”
- “Storming the capitol was an act of political violence meant to express ownership of the country, regardless of the outcome of any election,” Adam Serwer, a writer at The Atlantic, tweeted. “Its surrender by the capitol police was an affirmation that will encourage further violence.”
- “Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol,” Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, wrote.
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 | | Clockwise, from top left: Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany; Clarín, Argentina; La Repubblica, Italy; The Chosun Ilbo, Korea; Adresseavisen, Norway; Dainik Bhaskar, India. |
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How did the media in other countries cover the events? |
“Trump supporters attack the heart of American democracy,” Correa de Manhã, in Portugal, reported. Italy’s La Repubblica wrote: “Trump supporters on the attack: weapons in the chamber, Congress in lockdown.”India’s Dainik Bhaskar: “Oldest democracy in crisis.”And France’s Le Figaro: “Capture of the Capitol: The day America’s democracy fractured.” |
- Jon Ossoff won his Senate campaign in Georgia, giving the Democrats control in both chambers of Congress.
- Biden plans to nominate Judge Merrick Garland for attorney general. Republicans blocked Garland’s Supreme Court nomination in 2016.
- It was the deadliest day of the pandemic in the U.S. so far, with more than 3,900 deaths and 255,000 new cases reported. (Delayed reporting from the holidays may have played a role.)
- The federal government will introduce a program this week to administer coronavirus vaccines to high-risk groups, including older people and frontline workers, at pharmacies.
- A court in Lahore, Pakistan, abolished so-called virginity tests for women in sexual assault cases, saying the practice is humiliating and casts suspicion on victims rather than the accused.
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Lives Lived: Albert Roux and his brother, Michel, brought fine dining to a new level in London with the opening of Le Gavroche in 1967. It was the first restaurant in Britain to be awarded one, two and then three Michelin stars. Albert Roux died at 85. |
 | | Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times |
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The Times’s annual feature — “52 Places to Go” — tried something different this year. Instead of turning to reporters and photographers, it asked readers to talk about their favorite places — near or far — and share photos. You can find it all here. |
The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was lightweight. Today’s puzzle is above — or you can play online if you have a Games subscription. |
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David |
Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about yesterday’s assault on the Capitol. On the newest episode of “Sway,” Kara Swisher talks to the chief executive of Parler. |
Claire Moses, Amelia Nierenberg, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. |
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