As members of Congress met on Capitol Hill Wednesday to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive Electoral College, President Donald Trump riled up thousands of his supporters gathered near the White House with an unhinged speech in which he spewed innumerable lies about the November election and at one point feebly demanded a do-over.
“I want to go back eight weeks,” Trump said to cheers from his fans. “Let’s go back eight weeks.”
The president also denounced as “weak” and “pathetic” the members of his party who have refused to join the more than 150 House and Senate Republicans expected to object to the official certification of Biden’s win, a move that will delay the process but not prevent Congress from cementing the president-elect’s victory.
“We will never concede,” said the lame-duck president who continued to falsely proclaim that he won the election in a “landslide.”
Trump proceeded to once again lie that Vice President Mike Pence has the power to unilaterally block certification of Biden’s victory—a claim Pence himself rejected in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Wednesday.
“If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. He has the absolute right to do it,” Trump said, prompting chants of “Send it back!” from the crowd.
In his letter, the vice president wrote that “it is my considered judgement 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.”
Shortly after Trump’s remarks, the president’s supporters marched from the rally to the Capitol Building, where violent elements soon clashed with police and some congressional offices were evacuated or put on lockdown.
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Common Dreams | Radio Free (2021-01-06T16:37:53+00:00) “Let's Go Back Eight Weeks”: Off-the-Rails, Lie-Spewing Trump Pleads for Election Do-Over at DC Rally. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/01/06/lets-go-back-eight-weeks-off-the-rails-lie-spewing-trump-pleads-for-election-do-over-at-dc-rally/
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