After yesterday’s insanity at the Capitol Building, I was honestly wondering when or even if Congress would get back to its constitutionally mandated duties. Once the rioters were cleared from the premises, however, the Senators and House members filed back into their places in the wee hours of the morning and managed to finish the task at hand. The expected objections to the electoral college votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania were entered into the record and defeated by a wide margin. On the House side of the action, New York State Republican representative Elise Stefanik objected to the Pennsylvania votes, but later decided to approve Arizona’s, despite earlier suggesting she would oppose those as well. The end result is that Biden’s victory has been certified. (NY Post)

Congress early Thursday morning certified President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory after two Republican-led challenges to swing state electors were shot down.

The certification of Biden’s 306 electoral college votes was delayed for hours after lawmakers were forced into lockdown when an angry pro-Trump mob wreaked havoc on the Capitol building Wednesday.

Before confirming Biden’s win, objections to his victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania were brought up — and subsequently squashed — during the joint-session of Congress.

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath and waiting to see how Donald Trump would react to the news of the certification. They didn’t have to wait long. Shortly after the process was complete, Trump issued a statement through Dan Scavino, his communications advisor. (Probably because Twitter had locked the President’s own account.) The President hasn’t conceded that the election results are legitimate, but he has agreed to depart won’t attempt to block Joe Biden’s ascension to office.

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Electoral Certification:

“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 20th. I have always said we would continue our…

— Dan Scavino🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) January 7, 2021

The full details follow.

President Trump committed to an “orderly transition” of power early Thursday morning after a chaotic day on Capitol Hill…

“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 20th,” the president said in a statement posted to Twitter by his communication advisor Dan Scavino.

“I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. 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!”

So that’s it. It’s over. Republicans have managed to lose both the White House and the Senate. It’s far too early to restart the speculation as to whether or not Donald Trump will run to try for non-consecutive terms in 2024, but his one term in office will, without a doubt, go down in history as one of the most chaotic ever, while also being one of the most successful in terms of conservative objectives. Sadly, many of those gains will be washed away by the Democrats over the next couple of months.

As to what happened at the Capitol Building yesterday, Ed, Allahpundit and John covered it all sufficiently last night while I was off duty. I’ll only add a couple of brief thoughts. What we witnessed yesterday was not a protest. It was a riot. As I mentioned on Twitter as it was all playing out, if you were willing to call out the Antifa and BLM riots for what they were (as many of us did), you could not stand by and defend the destruction of government property and invasion of the chambers as being a “peaceful protest.” No permit was issued for such activity and what the rioters were doing was in violation of the law. If we can’t hold both sides to the same standards, then we are hypocrites who can’t make any claim to the moral high ground.