Vice President Pence late Wednesday evening denounced the violence at the U.S. Capitol in remarks on the Senate floor as lawmakers reconvened to resume the counting of Electoral College votes.
“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the people’s house,” Pence said.
“As we reconvene in this chamber, the world will again witness the resilience and strength of our democracy, for even in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism at this Capitol, the elected representatives of the people of the United States have assembled again on the very same day to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Pence continued.
Pence struck a decidedly different tone than President Trump, who responded to the violence with a video message posted to Twitter in which he urged his supporters to “go home in peace” while repeating his baseless claims that the presidential election was fraudulent.
Pence had been presiding over the Senate chamber earlier Wednesday when supporters of Trump’s stormed the building and made their way into the Capitol after attending a rally headlined by the president on White House Ellipse. The demonstrators were supporting Trump’s futile efforts to challenge the election results, egged on by his unsubstantiated and false claims about voter fraud.
Trump has been condemned for inciting the riots, including by some Republicans.
More than a dozen people have been arrested following the violent afternoon in Washington. One person was fatally shot.