The district police chief said at least 13 people were arrested and five firearms were recovered during the pro-Trump protests on Wednesday.
This is a breaking news update. An earlier version of this report is below.
Furious supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in a chaotic protest aimed at preventing a peaceful transfer of power, forcing lawmakers to be expelled from the building and halting the challenges to victory for Joe Biden’s Electoral College.
Trump made a restrained plea for peace long after the confusion started, but did not ask supporters to disperse. Before, he had urged them to march to the Capitol. The Pentagon said that about 1,100 members of the District of Columbia National Guard are being mobilized to help support law enforcement on Capitol Hill.
MORE: Trump, on video, tells protesters ‘very special’ to go home, but maintains false electoral attacks; Twitter signals ‘risk of violence’
Wednesday’s ordinarily mundane procedure in Congress certifying a new president would always be extraordinary, with Trump’s Republican supporters vowing to protest the results of an election that they claimed was baselessly reversed for fraud. But even the unusual deliberations, which included the Republican vice president and the Senate majority leader challenging Trump’s demands, were quickly overcome.
In a shrill and out of control scene, protesters fought the police and stormed the building, shouting and waving Trump and American flags as they marched through the corridors. One person was shot in the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the situation. That person’s condition was serious, reports ABC News.
Protesters abruptly interrupted Congressional proceedings in a frightening scene that featured official warnings directing people to duck under their seats to protect themselves and put on gas masks after tear gas was used at the Capitol Rotunda.
With the crowds showing no signs of abating, Trump tweeted, “Please support our Police and Capitol Police. They are really on our country’s side. Be at peace!” Previously, at his rally, he asked his supporters to march to the Capitol.
The senators were being evacuated. Some House legislators tweeted that they were taking shelter in their offices.
The protesters fought with the Capitol Police and then forced their way into the building, not long after a large demonstration near the White House during which Trump urged them to march to the Capitol.
Legislators called an extraordinary joint session to confirm the results of the Electoral College.
While other Republicans were behind the challenge to Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College victory, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell sought to ease tensions and argued against it. He warned that the country “cannot continue to divide itself into two separate tribes” with “separate facts”.
McConnell stated, “Voters, courts and states have spoken.”
But other Republicans, including Republican Party leaders among Trump’s allies, were acting in accordance with calls from supporters at their massive rally on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House on Wednesday to “fight for Trump.”
“We have to fix this,” said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican Party whip.
SEE ALSO: US lawmakers react to DC protest that blocked Capitol Hill
The latest effort is almost doomed to failure, defeated by bipartisan majorities in Congress prepared to accept the November results. Biden will open on January 20.
WATCH: Joe Biden calls the Capitol mob to ‘retreat’, urges the restoration of decency
Still, Trump promised he would “never give in” and asked the huge crowd to march to the Capitol, where hundreds had already gathered under tight security.
“We will never give up,” Trump said at his midday rally.
Vice President Mike Pence was closely watched as he climbed the dais to chair the joint session in the House.
Pence has a largely ceremonial role, opening the sealed envelopes of the states after they are loaded into the mahogany boxes used for the occasion, and reading the results out loud. But he was under increasing pressure from Trump to overturn voter will and bend the results in favor of the president, despite having no legal power to affect the outcome.
“Do it Mike, this is an hour of extreme courage!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
But Pence, in a statement shortly before his presidency, challenged Trump, saying he could not claim “unilateral authority” to reject the electoral votes that make Biden president.
Despite Trump’s repeated allegations of electoral fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general said there were no problems on a scale that would change the outcome. All states have certified their results as fair and accurate, both by Republican and Democratic officials.
Arizona was the first of several states that faced objections from Republicans while Congress was alphabetically reading election results. Then chaos broke out.
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Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Jill Colvin and Kevin Freking in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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