FORTY-SIX
Shortly after 4 p.m., as the rioters kept coming inside the Capitol and overwhelming the Capitol police force, Pence called Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary, and said, “Clear the Capitol.”
Miller assured Pence he was on it and things were moving.
At the White House, Kellogg stayed close to the president, who remained inside the Oval. Meadows hovered nearby.
Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, a former journalist who was a key adviser to Trump on China and the pandemic, came by.
Meadows unloaded on Pottinger. The National Guard was moving too slowly.
“God dammit,” Meadows said. He said he had told Miller to hurry up. “Where’s the Guard?”
Pottinger, who was in touch with contacts at the Pentagon and at related agencies, said Miller was wary of aggressively using the Guard to put down the riot. It seemed too militarized to Miller, too in-your-face.
Meadows did not want to hear the excuse.
I told him to get the Guard moving. Get out there and get it done, Meadows said. He told Pottinger to call Miller and push him.
Kellogg tried to pitch in, and called Miller’s chief of staff, Kash Patel.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Kellogg asked him. “Meadows is furious that the Guard is not moving.”
“Oh, they’re moving now, they’re moving now,” Patel said.
Anthony Ornato, a Secret Service official who had become Trump’s White House chief of operations, reminded Kellogg about another option.
“We’ve got 2,000 marshals that we can call up right now and put them out there,” Ornato said.
“That’s probably pretty smart, put them out there, too,” Kellogg said.
More and more people kept coming by the Oval Office. Damage control ideas were flying. Type out more tweets. Do a video. Hold a news conference.
“That’s probably the dumbest thing he could do right now,” Kellogg said. “If you go to a news conference that means somebody will ask more questions and you’ve got no control of it. You make sure you control the situation.”
Meadows and Kellogg, and other aides, went in to see the president. They decided on a video. It was soon taped outside the White House, Trump speaking to a single camera. No apologies, no concession. It posted at 4:17 p.m.
“This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people,” Trump said. “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Seven minutes later, the U.S. Marshals Service issued a tweet: “The U.S. Marshals Service is joining with other law enforcement agencies in supporting the U.S. Capitol Police during operations in Washington, D.C.”
In a cavernous room inside one of the Senate office buildings, senators in both parties were being told to stay put, with Capitol Police guarding the door. There was little food and senators grumbled they were hungry. As they scrolled through updates on their phones, and broke into small groups, tensions flared. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, at one point told Lindsey Graham to shut up.
No one spoke to Senator Hawley, who many of them blamed for instigating the riot by announcing his opposition to the certification a week earlier.
A photo of Hawley, his fist raised and clenched outside the Capitol, as if in solidarity with the Trump supporters, was ricocheting across the internet. He was becoming the face of Trump’s bloc in the Senate.
Eventually, senators watched Senator Cruz walk over to Hawley. “What are you going to do?” Cruz asked.
Nearly a dozen Senate Republicans had been planning to object to Arizona’s electoral vote. But with the riot ongoing, some GOP senators, including defeated Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler, were ready to just end the drama and approve the certification of Biden’s victory.
McConnell told several senators he wanted to move faster. Reconvene and be done with Arizona, move on. But he knew if Hawley continued, and objected to Pennsylvania’s count, moving fast would be impossible. According to the Senate rules, any objection would trigger more debate.
Hawley said little to Cruz and to Senator Roy Blunt, his fellow Missouri Republican, who also approached him and asked for a status update.
Eventually, even with the carnage and push from some colleagues to stand down, Hawley decided he would keep his objection to both Arizona and Pennsylvania. He would remain in lockstep with Trump.
When told of Hawley’s decision, many of his Republican colleagues groaned. What they saw as a political pageant, all for a president who could not accept defeat, was now going to go past midnight. Other Republicans would surely stick with Hawley, fearful of being seen as out of step with Trump’s voters.
As evening neared, Trump kept tweeting as police and troops worked to secure the Capitol. Violent militia extremists and white supremacists, later identified by the FBI, broke glass and ripped signs as they went through the hallways. Office equipment was strewn across floors. Colorful flags reading “TRUMP” and “AMERICA FIRST” were raised next to busts of vice presidents near the Senate.
National Guard troops, which had arrived, patrolled the premises, clearing people out as police made arrests. There were screams. Defiant chants.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump tweeted at 6:01 p.m. “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
Shortly after 8 p.m., the Senate returned to its chamber.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s lone Black Republican, approached Pence.
“I feel in a moment like this, I wish I could pray,” Scott said.
“Well, go ahead,” Pence said. “Let’s do it.” Senator Steve Daines of Montana, another Republican, joined them.
When Arizona came up for a vote, 93 senators rejected the objections of Hawley and five others—Cruz, plus Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and John Kennedy of Louisiana.
Senator Loeffler did not join them.
“When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes,” she said, glancing down. “However, the events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider and I cannot now, in good conscience, object.”
But Hawley still objected to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, prompting hours of additional debate. Senator Romney’s death stare at Hawley, while sitting behind the 41-year-old senator, caught the eye of millions watching the broadcast of the proceedings.
As the debate continued, senators took the floor. Many looked exhausted, rumpled.
Senator Mike Lee was solemn, but firm. “We each have to remember that we have sworn an oath to uphold, protect, and defend this document,” Lee said, holding up a copy of the Constitution.
“The Vice President of the United States shall open the ballots and the votes shall then be counted. It is those words that confine, define and constrain every scrap of authority that we have in this process. Our job is to open and then count. That’s it. That’s all there is.
“I have spent an enormous amount of time reaching out to state government officials in those states, but in none of the contested states—no, not even one—did I discover any indication that there was any chance that any state legislature, or secretary of state, or governor or lieutenant governor, that had any intention to alter the slate of electors.”
“Our job is to convene, to open the ballots, and to count them. That’s it.”
Lindsey Graham’s turn on the floor was a stream of consciousness of personal distress and political realism.
“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president, but today, first thing that you’ll see” in his obituary. January 6 would be etched forever into Trump’s legacy.
“All I can say is, ‘Count me out,’ ” Graham said. “Enough is enough.
“They said there’s 66,000 people in Georgia under 18 voted. How many people believe that? I asked, ‘Give me ten,’ and they had one. They said 8,000 felons in prison in Arizona voted. ‘Give me 10.’ I hadn’t gotten one.
“We’ve got to end it,” he said.
“Mike, Mr. Vice President,” he added, “just hang in there.
“You got a son who flies F-35s. You’ve got a son-in-law who flies F-18s. They’re out there flying so that we get it right here.
“Joe Biden, I’ve traveled the world with Joe. I hoped he lost. I prayed he would lose. He won.”
As with Arizona, the Senate rejected the objection to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, this time with a 92 to 7 vote. The House rejection on Pennsylvania was 282 to 138.
Shortly after 3:40 a.m. on Thursday, January 7, Pence announced that Biden had been certified the winner.
Pence headed out to his motorcade. Short texted the vice president: “2 Timothy 4:7.”
Pence knew it well.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” the verse reads in the King James Bible.