Celebrities were shocked on Jan. 6 after a group of people waving Trump flags broke into the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. during the counting of U.S. president-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College votes.
Just after noon, Donald Trump held a rally in which he falsely stated he had actually won the 2020 U.S. election, and encouraged supporters to head to the Capitol building, where Joe's win was to be certified by lawmakers.
According to The New York Times, around 2:15 p.m., the counting of Electoral College votes in the Capitol building stopped as the security was breached by a group of Trump supporters, who overwhelmed Capitol police and stormed the building, smashing windows and eventually making their way into the Senate chamber. When there, they jumped all over seats and even occupied the dias chair, shouting that Trump had won the election. Lawmakers were inside at the time and sheltered in place.
Four people have been confirmed dead after violence that broke out.
The National Guard has been called in to handle the situation and is being deployed in the U.S. capital city, according to The New York Times. Washington, D.C.'s mayor also declared a curfew.
Late on Jan. 6, members of Congress returned to the Capitol building and continued their debate. Joe Biden was officially certified the 46th President of the United States, and Donald later pledged an "orderly transition," but said he still disagreed with the outcome of the election.
One of the people who broke in to the Capitol is seen on the chamber's dias after the Capitol was evacuated. Photo: © Win McNamee/Getty Images
"Truly disgusted," Insecure star Issa Rae tweeted about the events.
"I'm speechless," Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in the Avengers films, tweeted.
"Support the peaceful transition of power!!!!!!!" Ashton Kutcher tweeted. "That's being a patriot!"
"This has got to stop. Outrageous," singer Sara Bareilles tweeted, sharing a photo of the person sitting on the chair of the chamber's dias.
"As a United States citizen and the daughter of two veterans and the sister of another, I am ashamed of what is happening in Washington," Pink tweeted.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, called for Christians to pray for the United States.
"There will be many lessons to be learned from the scenes in Washington," he tweeted. "For the moment, let us pray for the USA, the world's greatest defender of democracy until now, as it faces this huge shock. May God Bless America with peace and reconciliation."
In a speech, the U.S.-president elect called the events an "assault" on American democracy by "a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness" and said it does not represent the feelings of the average Americans.
"It must end, now," he said, with emphasis on the latter word. "I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward," he said.
The 78-year-old also called the events "chaos" and said they border on "sedition." He also called on the U.S. president, who is supposed to leave office on Jan. 20, to condemn the violence.
Three former American presidents also condemned the violence.
"The election was free, the count was fair, the result is final," Bill Clinton said in his own statement. "We must complete the peaceful transfer of power our Constitution mandates."
Donald later released a one-minute taped message from outside the White House in which he repeated debunked, untrue claims he actually won the election in a "landslide" and said it was "stolen" from him.
"You have to go home now. We have to have peace," he said, but continued to call the election "fraudulent" before saying, "we love you, you're very special."
When video of Donald's speech was uploaded to his Twitter account, the social network flagged it and added text that read, "This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can't be replied to, Retweeted or liked due to a risk of violence."
Canadian stars were also watching with disbelief as the events unfolded.
"I am still trusting the USA to remain true to its Constitution," Margaret Atwood tweeted, sharing video of the mob storming the Capitol.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he hopes "things will calm down" in Washington.
"Hopefully everything will return to normal shortly, but we're going to continue to do what we need to do to make sure that Canadians are well-served in our relationship with the United States regardless of how things unfold," he told News 1130.
