'He's a criminal': Lisa Wilkinson launches an EXTRAORDINARY attack on Donald Trump after deadly chaos in the U.S.
Lisa Wilkinson has launched an attack on Donald Trump - calling the U.S. president a 'criminal' after chaotic and violent riots in which his supporters stormed Capitol Hill in Washington DC.
While displaying footage of the Washington DC chaos showing 'democracy under siege', The Project host Ms Wilkinson addressed the show's viewers on Thursday night saying Trump was 'clearly unhinged'.
Trump has refused to concede his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden following U.S. elections and urged his supporters multiple times to come to Washington for a rally on Wednesday - as the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate were to certify the results of the Electoral College.
'The fact that he refuses allow this peaceful transfer of power, in my mind makes him a criminal,' she said.
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Trump supporters meet police as they try to break through a police barrier in front of the Capitol building, a symbol of U.S. democracy, on January 6 in Washington
The Project's Lisa Wilkinson launched an scathing attack on Donald Trump calling him a 'criminal' following riots on the U.S. capitol, which he had encouraged for weeks by repeating false claims of a fraudulent election to his supporters
President Donald Trump speaks at the 'Stop The Steal' Rally on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters swarmed the nation's capital to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election
'Mike Pence has been loyal to him for four years, there was no thanks to Pence today from Trump.' Ms Wilkinson contuinued.
'All of those people who have allowed this to happen, it was always going to end like this. Even still, it is so awful to watch this Great Western democracy just completely collapse.'
The chaos in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday unfolded after President Donald Trump spent weeks whipping up his supporters with false allegations of fraud in the November 3 election, culminating in a call to march to the building that represents U.S. democracy.
The riots, which left four people dead, forced politicians to rush from the Capitol building and interrupted challenges to Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.
Republican vice president and Senate majority leader Mike Pence had a largely ceremonial role, opening the sealed envelopes from the states after they are carried in mahogany boxes used for the occasion, and reading the results aloud.
But he was under growing pressure from Trump to overturn the will of the voters - despite not having the power to do affect the result, he still issued a statement defying Trump.
President Trump issued a restrained call for peace well after the protests was under way but did not urge supporters to disperse. Earlier he had seemingly egged them on to march to Capitol Hill.
'Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,' Trump, a Republican, tweeted on December 20. 'Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!'
They turned out in the thousands and heard the president urge them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to pressure their elected officials to reject the results.
'We're going to walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and Congressmen and women,' Trump told the crowd, speaking with the White House as a backdrop.
Appearing at what could be his last rally as the sitting president, Trump exhorted his supporters 'to fight.'
'We will never give up, we will never concede,' Trump said, delighting the crowd by calling Democratic victories the product of what he called 'explosions of bulls**t.'
'Bulls**t! Bulls**t! Bulls**t!' people chanted in reply.
Trump has sought for weeks to thwart a peaceful transfer of power, aided by groups such as 'Stop the Steal,' which promoted the day's protest and peddled false claims about voter fraud on Facebook and other social media.
Police said both law enforcement and protesters deployed chemical irritants during the hours-long occupation of the Capitol building before it was cleared by law enforcement.
The woman was shot as the mob tried to break through a barricaded door in the Capitol where police were armed on the other side. She was hospitalised with a gunshot wound and later died.
Armed police keep a watch on demonstrators who tried to break through a police barrier on January 6 from a balcony at the Capitol in Washington
Trump supporters, whipped up by weeks of false claims of a fraudulent election by Donald Trump, try to break through a police barrier
But Wednesday's events were the culmination of his efforts to thwart a peaceful transfer. About 50 minutes into the speech, some of his supporters, waving Trump flags, began heading toward Capitol Hill, where unprecedented mayhem ensued.
Protesters fought through police barricades, stormed the building and entered lawmakers' chambers. The certification process was stopped and Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress were evacuated.
In a statement posted on Twitter by White House spokesman Dan Scavino on Thursday, Trump said there would be an orderly transition of power 'though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election'.
Monitoring the scenes of violence on cable news television from the White House, Trump tweeted about an hour after the Capitol was put on lockdown that the protesters should 'remain peaceful.'
As criticism mounted that he had incited a riot, he was urged to say more by a Trump stalwart, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, and some of the advisers who remain for his dwindling days in office.
Biden had come out forcefully on live television and said the violence was 'not a protest, it's insurrection.' He called on Trump to demand 'an end to this siege.'
Mr Trump finally accepted his fate after Mr Pence ended his desperate campaign to overturn the election at 3:41 a.m. Thursday morning US time and certified President-elect Biden's win – despite the attempt of scores of Republicans and a violent MAGA mob to overturn it.
Trump supporters participate in a rally as Congress prepares to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory, thousands of people have gathered to show their support for President Donald Trump and his baseless claims of election fraud
Police with guns drawn watch as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in Washington
The low down on how Congress certifies the Electoral College vote
At 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Senators and Representatives will gather in the House chamber for a Joint Session of Congress to count and certify the electoral college ballots.
Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump by 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232.
But the constitution calls for Congress to certify the results, in a process that has become largely procedural. It is very difficult to over turn an election and it has never happened in American history.
Republicans, however, have vowed to object to the electoral college results, dragging out the certification process and putting on a grand display of theater that will likely please the president.
Here's how the day will play out:
The process is presided over by the president of the Senate, which is Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence will open the states' sealed certificates in alphabetical order and hand them them to one of four 'tellers' — a Republican and a Democrat from each chamber of Congress - who will announce how each state voted.
As each state's result is read, Pence will ask whether any member of Congress wishes to raise an objection.
At least one member of the House and one member of the Senate must object for the objection to stand. The law also states the objection must be in writing.
If the objection is recognized, the lawmakers go to their respective chambers to debate the matter for up to two hours.
Then the House and Senate each votes on whether to sustain the objection - which would dismiss the state's votes - or reject the objection.
For a state's results to be dismissed, majorities of both chambers have to vote to sustain the objection. If one chamber votes to sustain the objection and the other doesn't, the objection is dismissed and the state's electoral college results stand.
The Democratically-controlled House is unlikely to support sustaining an objection, meaning the states' results will stand and Biden will ultimately be declared the winner.
Additionally, the Republican-controlled Senate isn't likely to vote in favor of an objection, either. The GOP has a slim margin in the upper chamber and a number of Republican senators have voiced their objections to the objection process.
After the objection is voted on by each chamber, the joint session reconvenes and continues with the count. If there's another objection to a different state's vote, the process is repeated.
President Trump's allies are looking at challenging three states: Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, which could go into the early morning hours of Thursday.
'At the end of the day, which could be the middle of the night, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be officially declared the next President and Vice President of the United States,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote to Democratic House members on Monday.
After the votes are recorded from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the vice president declares who has received the requisite majority of electoral college votes. That announcement finalizes the election.
WHAT IF THE OBJECTIONS ARE SUSTAINED?
If, by some remote chance, an objection is sustained, Trump and his allies hope that will result in the electors being thrown out, ultimately bringing Biden's electoral count below the 270 needed to win.
If all three state challenges are successful, Biden would have 259 electoral votes, throwing the election to the House of Representatives to select the next president.
Under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, each state congressional delegation gets one vote.
While Democrats control the House, Republicans control the majority of state delegations, which is how Trump hopes to be 'elected.'
Sources: NBC News, Washington Post, New York Times
Trump supporters clash with police as they try to break through a police barrier in violent protest in the United States
Eventually, Trump posted a recorded video on Twitter.
'I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election,' Trump said, repeating familiar falsehoods. 'But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order.'
He posted another message that called the mob 'great patriots' who were reacting to an election victory 'viciously stripped away.' Twitter later hid three tweets and locked Trump's account.
Three White House aides resigned after the violence at the Capitol and more were considering resigning before the end of Trump's term. Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Trump's failure to rein in his supporters stood in sharp contrast to his attitude last summer when he threatened arrests and the use of force to break up protests against racial inequality.
During the Black Lives Matter protests, Trump discussed using the military in response, and an area near the White House was forcibly cleared for him to stage a photo-op in front of a church, holding a Bible.
Thousands of people in the gathered crowd listen as President Donald Trump speaks during the rally Wednesday in Washington
Democrats and some Republicans blamed Trump for inciting the violence on Wednesday.
'Today´s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump,' Jim Mattis, a former defense secretary under Trump, said in a statement.
Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee, called it an 'insurrection incited by the president of the United States.'
Weeks have passed since the states completed certifying that Biden won by 306 votes in the Electoral College to Trump's 232, and Trump's extraordinary challenges to the result have failed in courts across the country.
Yet Trump's rally speech on Wednesday was filled with grievances and voter fraud allegations that have not been backed up with evidence.
He singled out several Republican lawmakers for criticism, including Romney and Representative Liz Cheney, while hailing as heroes those who have sided with him to stop the electoral votes from being certified.
Several times he also urged Pence to intervene. But while Trump was still speaking, Pence released a lengthy statement saying he would carry out his constitutional duty to certify the vote.
'It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,' Pence wrote.