BREAKING: Congress certifies Joe Biden’s election win; Trump commits to ‘orderly transition on January 20th’

“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”

Four hours after protesters stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC, which left four people dead, authorities declared the area secure and Congress finalized the certification of Joe Biden's 306-232 electoral college victory in the 2020 presidential election.

The vote was finally certified at 3:40 AM local time.

Following the violence, four Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost a special election in Georgia last night, said they had changed their positions and would vote to uphold the Electoral College results after having previously said they would object to them.

Objections to Arizona and Pennsylvania’s votes were both rejected by the House and Senate. Objections to Biden’s wins in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin failed without a vote in Congress because no Senate Republicans agreed to support them.

Vice President Mike Pence said the "violence is quelled" and the "Capitol is secure" as lawmakers resumed their certification of the Electoral College vote. “Let’s get back to work," Pence added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the resumed session with a speech addressing the day's events and said protestors "failed" to "disrupt democracy" and that Congress will "certify the winner of the 2020 presidential election."

"The United States and the United States Congress have faced down much greater threats than the unhinged crowd we saw today. We've never been deterred before and we'll not be deterred today," McConnell said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that the joint session of Congress would work through the night, adding that the “assault.. on our democracy” cannot "deter us from our responsibility to validate the election of Joe Biden."

After Congress reconvened shortly after 9pm local time, Pelosi said the process of certifying the Electoral College's voting results will "take as long as it takes."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) compared the protests to Pearl Harbor. "Franklin Roosevelt set a day aside that will live in infamy. Unfortunately, we can now add January 6, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy."

Senator Lindsey Graham, declared 'it is over' during his Senate floor speech, stating, 'Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and vice president of the United States on January the 20th'

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who has been one of the most vocal supporters of President Trump and had previously voiced his intention to object when Congress convened said, "We do need an investigation into irregularities, fraud. We do need a way forward together. We need election security reforms."

Hawley posted on Twitter the previous night that while he was out of town, Antifa vandalized his home in Washington, DC, and threatened his wife and newborn baby. “Violence is not how you achieve change. Violence is not how you achieve something better,” Hawley Wednesday night on the floor of the Senate.

While making the case that there was fraud in the election, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said on the floor, "This morning, President Trump explicitly called for demonstrations and protests to be peaceful...he was far more explicit for his calls for peace than some of the BLM and left wing rioters were this summer when we say violence sweep across this nation."

"I know there are many countries where political violence might be neccessary, but American is not one such country. Madam speaker, it was wrong when people vandalized and deface your home, it was wrong when thugs went to Senator Hawley's home...and I'm sure glad that for one day, I didn't hear my Democrat colleagues calling to defund the police," Gaetz continued.