shannon: assault on democracy, a group of protesters storming the halls of congress. scenes of chaos and violence breaking out during a joint session of congress. for now calm has been restored in the nation's capital with the time honored tradition of peaceful transfer of political power scarred. good early morning, john: with continuing coverage of wednesday's astonishing events in washington dc, the

images were frightening and shocking, the fallout four people did, many more hurt and scores of arrests. it was an attempted insurrection to triggered a lockdown on capitol hill and caused lawmakers to fear for their lives. at this hour washington is on tight curfew orders and under the watch of national guard and dc police. jillian: congress will complete its constitutional duty to certify the electoral college votes but americans are left wondering if this could all happen again. who is to blame and why was the us government can't so flat-footed? the violence has been put to rest. a short while ago we saw a tussle breakout on the house floor after two members nearly came to blows in early morning hours. chad program has been tracking this all night, all morning. what is going on?

>> we 14 hours and to the process of certifying the electoral college. they are getting toward the end of this process delayed because of the bedlam in the us capital today when people stormed the building. on the house for they are voting on the pennsylvania slate of electors. they have challenge two state slate of electors, there was a in house and senate earlier on arizona and now they are doing pennsylvania, they will wrap this up very soon. this appeal to reject the pennsylvania slate of electors is not going to succeed. they will accept the pennsylvania slate. the senate voted earlier, the vote was 92-7 to accept pennsylvania. we will have a brief pause and was will happen is they will reconvene a joint session of congress. this is just the house you are looking at and mike pence, the vice president will come over to the dais inside the house chamber and continue going through the slate of electoral

college votes. they will get through south carolina, rhode island and south dakota. to the end of the alphabet there was a question whether they would challenge wisconsin's electoral votes. at the end, mike pence under the limit of the amendment will announce the photo, 306 electoral votes for joe biden and 232 for donald trump and all will be on a glide path for president-elect biden to be sworn in at the capital on the twentieth of january. this has been a very intense day after the ride in the capital. several lawmakers on the republican side said they want to challenge the electoral slates. the republican senator from indiana. he said i didn't feel comfortable with the day's

events, two states were challenged. at the beginning of your remarks you talked, 45 minutes ago there was a conflict, they thought they could lower the temperature with the riot and marauders, a republican from maryland and a democrat from texas almost got into a fist fight in the rear of the chamber but cooler heads prevailed. jillian: a lot of americans look to these events and hoped the trauma of all of this might lead lawmakers to seek more unity going into the new congress but based on your reporting that is out the window. >> reporter: it has been a pretty intense. go. you might have to get into the new congress with a lot of new

faces and people get to know one another. when you have a nearly equally divided house of representatives, for nancy pelosi and the democrats and 50/50 senate people have to get along to some degree to get things done. granted they will be passionate about those issues but if they move any degree of a legislative agenda they have to get along but sometimes especially since the house will be in play, do republicans dig in and make it harder for democrats to pass anything? you could see that in the senate in 2022, that remains to be seen but sometimes moments like this bring people together. we saw that after 9/11. this was one of those 9/11 moments at the us capital as they go to sort this out over the next couple weeks. can we actually work together? you had members of the leadership, kevin mccarthy imploring colleagues they have to lower the temperature. kudos if they can do that, a

fistfight on the house floor, the temperature goes up. jillian: stay safe, don't get into any fistfights. john: lucas tomlinson joins us once again. >> reporter: reinforcement for into the nations capital but why are they coming after the fact? is electoral college certification, and that romney blamed the president for the violence. >> now we gather due to a selfish man's injured pride. what happened here was an insurrection. those who choose to continue to support a dangerous gambit by objecting to the result of a legitimate democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack our against our

democracy. >> 1100 members mobilized over 6000 national guardsmen from moving you, new jersey, delaware, maryland and virginia, 400 maryland and virginia state troopers have arrived, federal law enforcement has been mobilized. maryland's governor said he never thought he would see a day like this in america, 40,000 strong. donald trump's defense chief was on calls with top lawmakers on capitol hill, the president himself was not on those calls, former defense chief jim mattis blasting the president and

blamed him for the violence, quote, today's violent assault on our capital, and effort to subjugate american democracy by marble was fermented by mister trump. his use of the presidency to destroy trust in our election and poison a respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo-political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles and cowardice. our constitution and republic will overcome this stain, we the people come together again in a never-ending effort to form a more perfect union. mister trump will deservedly be left a man without a country. the fbi is looking for any clues or information about who were these people, the small that stormed the embassy, stormed the capital force lawmakers to evacuate having many americans questioning what happened here today. john: lucas tomlinson on capitol hill, thanks. for more on what transpired today in the capital we are going to -- all right. we are going to go to judith miller once again, adjunct fellow at the manhattan institute for policy research, lakeamanda beatty assistant to george w. bush and steve hayes,

editor and ceo of the dispatch. it seems a lot of republicans who sort of tried to to -- didn't know how to deal with donald trump, didn't want to be the victims of his tweet storms so they tried to walk the line of abiding him but not getting too close. a lot of those people seem to have cut the cord after what happened. >> if they weren't going to cut the cord today they were never going to cut the cord. we know who donald trump is. we have seen this for four years. we know that he was determined not to respect the will of the people, he still will not do that. the issue today for us is who are we as americans? who are the republicans? can the republican party go

beyond being the party of trump? because if they are not, if they watched today, someone in the capital scaffold took down the american flag and put up the flag of donald trump, then all is really lost for republicans and i can't believe the republican party cannot rise above this and become again the grand old party but this is a moment of test for us as a nation and for the republican party. donald trump must be reined in. we have 14 more days. his legacy is forever tarnished. do not let him take a wrecking ball to our democracy. john: he got some pretty stern words from the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell who i want you to listen to this,

mitch mcconnell, donald trump is an saying over and over that the election was stolen from him. mitch mcconnell answered him on the floor of the senate, listen. >> we are debating a step that has never been taken in american history whether congress should over the voters and overturned a presidential election. i've served 36 years in the senate, this will be the most important vote i have ever cast. >> and emotional mitch mcconnell, he was talking about the effort to overturn the electoral college vote. who leads the republican party once donald trump is out of office? is he going to continue to be the party's figurehead? >> i don't think he will be. the conundrum with donald trump has always been rhetoric versus

results. we didn't like a lot of the rhetoric but we certainly liked the results and that is the balancing act these four years but once he leaves the presidency it will be up to those remaining in power in the house, the senate and around the country and those perhaps not in power who are members of the republican party to step up and put a new brand on the republican party post trump era. it is going to happen and we will see some jockeying which naturally occurs when power shifts and you will see leadership rise to the occasion, people like marco rubio perhaps or john spoon, i can think of a lot of young dynamic leaders out there who are ready to assume that mantle, but we will come together as a party, i can assure you of that. >> the effort in the electoral college, there were many who wanted to decertify some of the votes. that has not happened, take you

to chad program where they had just wrapped up the objections to the pennsylvania electoral college vote. >> reporter: they've had the final vote on the pennsylvania slate of electors 282-138 to accept the votes from the commonwealth of pennsylvania. earlier in the senate they voted 92-7 to accept pennsylvania's slate of electoral votes. they are for what they think are most of the challenges, they will reconvene shortly and the joint session of congress were the house and senate meet together like they do for state of the union to gather and this is where mike pence will go through the rest of the alphabet. the final remaining states, rhode island and south carolina to get to the end of the upper but we don't think there will be

any other challenges in line here. it was thought they might have an electoral challenge to wisconsin but that will not be the case tonight. at the end of the day they only challenged two of the six states they discussed. arizona which they started that challenge at 1:00 yesterday afternoon and we are pushing for:00 in the morning and they will wrap up just before 4:00 and joe biden will collect 306 electoral votes, donald trump 232 and vice president mike pence will announce that from the chair. under the twelfth amendment this is the process, it's is the person with the most electoral votes shall be president and that will be official in the next hour or so. john: chad program reporting live from capitol hill, thank you. back to our panel, steve hayes, vice president pence got roasted from his boss, donald trump, on

that stage today and we are told pence wasn't very happy about it but it appears there is no appearing about it, he is not doing what the president wanted him to do. he's going to certify this election. >> is doing his job. the problem is the president demand fealty to the president, donald trump cares about donald trump and little else. what mike pence did today was what a vice president does every time we have this peaceful transfer of power, he didn't do anything extraordinary. it was the circumstances and the context and the pressure put on him by donald from calling him out by name trying to make mike pence in effect the unilateral declarer of the presidency. it is an absurd thing to say and a further stain on donald trump's presidency and it

suggests to me that he is still a danger to have an office for the next couple weeks. john: he has lost his twitter account at least for the next 20 hours or something like that. it could be extended beyond that. if he doesn't have that outlet what will donald trump do? how does he communicate? >> i think he will communicate by commanding time on air, by demanding that we follow everything that he does, he has tried to always make this about him as opposed to about us and i think that game is just about over. i sit here now florida in palm beach and i hope the media stops paying attention to everything that he does and starts covering again the nation's business. john: a number of republican

leaders, we thought this challenge to the electoral college vote was going to be a more lengthy process, that many of the states were going to be involved. it appears the violence and the mob ransacking of the capital sort of squash the appetite for that kind of thing. there were some challenges but it didn't go on as long and not as many states were involved. in some way, is that a good result of all this? >> there is a finale once and for all, the people spoke, the constitution was honored. the fact is the grievances that were going to be aired that weren't in some of the states were merely grievances to make a record of the grievance. really didn't have an effect on the outcome. having said that the obligation is on congress and the biden administration going forward to listen to the peoples

apprehension about the electoral process. the appearance of impropriety as a as bad as impropriety itself. we need national voting standards, campaign-finance reform, to reel in social media. these are challenges we need to solve now so we don't have a repeat of this two years from now, next year, four years from now continuing. john: as was said earlier our adversaries are watching all of this and laughing. thank you, check in with you again. jillian: what consequences are in store for the people who stormed the capital yesterday? potentially criminal charges for one thing. we will talk to a legal expert on.

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y welcome back from the commercial break. hundreds of protesters to the capital causing death and destruction. what is in store for them now? we are going to take it live to the house floor. the vice president is returning to the house floor as we speak.

i believe this is because we are going to return to a joint session of congress to close out this day. john: the challenge was rejected by the members of the house of representatives. mike pence is about to certify the electors as baited by other states. chad program understands the process better than anybody. >> reporter: they will go back in session, this is a joint session of the house and senate meeting to gather and under the twelfth amendment of the constitution the vice president presides. you see them going through the paperwork on the dais, house speaker nancy pelosi, they have finished the electoral challenge to tuesday's, they debated

separately and voted separately to affirm the electoral votes sent from those two states so they had to pick up the rest of the rollcall, through rhode island and south carolina and south dakota and so on and get to the end of the out for that and mike pence will announce the vote total in the election of 2020 will be all but final. they are waiting to swear in joe biden on the twentieth of january at the united states capital. he will start momentarily. a little bit of process, little bit of procedure. he was brought into the house chamber, i should note when they meet in a joint session of congress only two locations they do that on capitol hill, joint session means the house and senate meeting to gather, almost all the time in the house chamber, you do this for the state of the union when the president comes to deliver that address and when you meet every four years to certify the results of the electoral college, joint meeting of congress is one step lower if you had the head of a foreign state coming to speak at the capital.

mike pence taking off his mask, getting prepared to pick up with these other electoral ballots from other states going through the certificates, has to go to the end of the off of it starting with rhode island. >> joint session of congress count of the electoral vote will resume, having taken their seats two houses retired to consider separately and decide upon the vote. commonwealth of pennsylvania to which objection has been filed. the secretary of the senate will report the action of the senate. image in the senate of the united states ordered that the senate by a vote of 7-92 reject the objection to the electoral votes cast in the commonwealth of pennsylvania for joe biden for president and kamala harris for vice president.

>> julie adams, the secretary of the senate announcing the senate result, cheryl jones, the clerk of the house announcing the result. >> the action of the electoral vote of the commonwealth of pennsylvania. >> pursuant to the law chapter 1 title iii united states code because the two houses have not sustained the objection the original certificate submitted by the commonwealth of pennsylvania will be counted as provided therein. tellers will now record and announce the vote of the state of rhode island for the president and vice president in accordance with the action of the two houses. this certificate from rhode island, parliamentarians advise me the only certificate from the state, it reports to be a return from the state, and asked

certificate of authority to appoint and ascertain. >> reporter: their slate of electors accepted by the house and senate and this is the final moment of this process as they go through the final states. amy klobuchar, democratic senator from minnesota, the top democrat on the senate rules committee, a lot of the administration at the capital, has jurisdiction over federal elections, reading the rhode island electoral slate and will continue so probably in the next 10 or 15 minutes we will have a final electoral count announced on the floor by vice president mike pence. >> the certificate from south carolina the parliamentarians advise me is the only certificate of vote from that state that purports to be a return from the state and as an x to 2 with a certificate of authority of the state

purporting to appoint and ascertain electors. >> mister president, the certificate the electoral vote of the state of south carolina seems to be regular and authentic and appears there from that donald j trump of the state of florida received 9 votes for president and michael are pence of the state of indiana received 9 votes for vice president. >> rodney davis, republican congressman from illinois, the top republican on the house administration, you will be hearing a lot from him and amy klobuchar a couple moments ago because the committees they work on in congress, the senate rules committee and the house administration committee, they have jurisdiction over the us capitol police and i bet there's going to be an imposition here about what happened today that caused this bedlam at the capital. we are probably 10 minutes away from the final result as they get to the end of the alphabet, getting pretty close.

>> that donald j trump -- john: i want to ask a question, when you have a joint meeting of the house and senate under the current configuration, 533 people but given the covid-19 restrictions they are trying to keep lower numbers in the house of representatives, are they not? >> trying is the keyword. we had an unexpected vote on the first day of congress on sunday, dozens upon dozens upon dozens of members in the chamber at the same time. house speaker nancy pelosi put out a letter saying we have to practice covid-19 guidelines, social distancing, 76 people in the chamber at a time. even at the start of the session there were too many members in the house chamber, republicans were arguing how can we make an appeal, you had members in the gallery on the third floor where

the tourists, the public and the press usually sits. that is why when you saw photographs of people kneeling when the incursion happened they were upstairs on the third floor, they were trying to space people out and that was an issue nancy pelosi admonished members before all chaos broke loose earlier in the afternoon saying we can't have this many people in the chamber. that is a problem. again, she put out a letter we have to practice covid-19 rules, we had another congressman, three announced they tested positive. a republican congressman from florida announced he tested positive. the day before yesterday kevin brady, top republican on the house ways and means committee tested positive and can granger, top republican on the house appropriations committee testing positive. they have three members in the

house already testing positive. one wonders when you have numbers after the security breach huddled together for long periods of time along with journalist and staff and people in small rooms which is exactly the opposite of what they want you to do in a pandemic and according to cdc guidelines what this could mean for the health of the house of representatives and the senate. >> mister president, the certificate of the electoral vote. jillian: if we look forward a little bit beyond this morning after this wraps up, does, swipe at hand of the november election and focus on interviewing and confirming joe biden's nominees? >> reporter: that will probably be the next big thing. we don't think the house and senate will be in session until after the inauguration, there

will not be agreement to introduce any bills until the 21st. you had multiple cabinet secretaries approved just hours after donald trump was sworn in on january 20th, 2017. it is unclear if they can move any confirmation hearings that quickly. one thing we probably will see if they will swear in rafael warnock and john ossoff, kelly leffler for the moment continues to be a senator, she spoke on the senate floor today, she initially said she was going to object to the certifications of the electoral votes, then switched her position after the bedlam at the capital today. that is the only thing parliament are all eu could see happen but maybe the beginnings of this inquest about what happened with the us capitol police, that will take a little time to sort out being the chief

of the capital police is one of the toughest jobs in law enforcement. the reason is you have 535 mayors who all want to tell the capital police chief how to run the city so it is a hard job to start with but they have a legitimate beef after what happened today which was utterly unacceptable. john: chad program, thank you. jillian: let's bring the paneling, judith miller, steve hayes and brad blakeman. let's follow up on what i was discussing which is the future after this morning once congress puts the november election to bed. i will come to you first. we were talking a couple blocks ago about how the new congress during the biden administration

will be virtually unobstructed. biden will be able to push his cabinet secretary nominees through very quickly, right? >> yes, absent anything that could be derogatory or would knock them out of that position for confirmation he should have a relatively easy time getting his nominees as it should be. the president should have the pick of his cabinet of his choosing to proceed with governance but the thing to watch is how quickly they can come on the job, how quickly the president can form a white house staff. these are the challenges the president-elect will have today as we moved to the inauguration and hit the ground running on january 20th. jillian: there has been intense squabbling between the biden transition team and donald

trump's national security team at the pentagon, at the national security counsel, folks have been complaining the trump administration stopped meetings, standby, we've got to go back to the house floor for a brief moment, listen to the vice president. >> this certificate from wisconsin, parliamentarians advise is the only certificate from that state, purports to be a return from the state, annex 2, certificate of authority from the state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors. >> mister president, the certificate of the electoral vote in the state of wisconsin seems to be regular in form and authentic and appears there from joseph r biden junior of the state of delaware received ten votes for president and kamala

harris of the state of california received 10 votes for vice president. >> for what reason does the gentleman from texas rise? >> i object to be electoral votes of the state of wisconsin because 71 house members condemned violence as we witness today, firmly committed to the resolution of disagreement in civil, lawful, peaceful institutions with full and fair debate, free of violence and not a single court has allowed an evidence year hearing to listen to the significant body of evidence of fraud and the court at failures to misrepresent that no court would listen to the evidence as saying evidence did not exist while democrat leaders in milwaukee illegally and unconstitutionally created more than 200 illegal polling places tens of thousands of votes were changed by workers despite election workers objections,

plus so many other illegalities to generally created 20,000 vote lead. we object along with a senator who now has withdrawn his objection. >> sections 15 and 17 of title iii of the united states could require any objection be presented in writing, signed by a member of the house of representatives at a senator. is the objection in writing and signed by a member and a senator? >> it is in writing and signed by a member but it is not signed and objected to buy a senator. >> in that case the objection cannot be entertained. this certificate from wyoming, the parliament hearings advise is the only certificate from that state, purports to be a

return from the state as an act of certificate of authority from the same state purporting to appoint and ascertain electors. >> interesting, louis goehmert, representative from texas was trying to object to the certification of wisconsin's votes but as you probably heard by now each objection requires the signature of one senator and one member of congress which he admitted he did not have the signature of a senator and therefore he was overruled by the vice president, mike pence who is running this show. do we have chad program still with us? phyllis in a little more on what just happened, kind of an interesting moment. >> after all the chaos at the u had a number of senators who wanted to challenge up to six states and fell off but listen to mike pence right now as he announces the electoral college.

>> the undersigned roy blunt and amy klobuchar, on the part of the senate, rodney davis, tell us on the part of the house of representatives report the following as the result of the ascertainment and counting of the electoral vote for president and vice president of the united states for the term beginning on the twentieth day of january 2021. the report we make is that joe biden and kamala harris will be the president and vice president according to the ballots that have been given to us. [applause]

>> the whole number of electors appointed to vote for president of the united states is 538. within that whole number a majority is 207 is the vote for president of the united states are as follows. joseph r biden junior of the state of delaware has received 306 votes. donald j trump with the state of florida has received 232 votes. the whole number of electors appointed to vote for vice president of the united states is 538 was within that whole number a majority is 270. the votes for vice president of the united states are as follows, kamala harris of the state of california has received 306 votes. michael pence of the state of

indiana has received 232 votes. the announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the senate shall be deemed sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the united states, each for the term beginning on the twentieth day of january 2021 and shall be entered together with the list of the votes on the journals of the senate and the house of representatives. the chair now recognizes for the purpose of closing the 60-second chaplain of the united states senate, barry c black. >> let us pray. board of our lives and sovereign

of our beloved nation, we deep or the desecration of the united states capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy. these tragedies have reminded us that words matter and that the power of life and death is in the tongue. we have been warned that eternal vigilance continues to be freedom's price. lord, you helped us remember that we need to see in each

other a common humanity that reflects your image. you have strengthened our resolve to protect and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, domestic as well as foreign. use us to bring healing and unity to a hurting and divided nation and world. thank you for what you have blessed our lawmakers to accomplish in spite of threats to liberty. bless and keep us.

drive far from us all wrong desires. incline our hearts to do your will and guide our feet on the path of peace and, god, bless america. we pray in your sovereign name amen. >> the purpose of the joint session having concluded pursuant to senate concurrent resolution one, 100 seventeenth congress the chair declares the joint session dissolved. [applause] >> we have a new president-elect of the united states formally certified by the united states congress, joe biden will become the 40 sixth president of the

united states to be sworn in per the constitution at noon on january 20th in the us capital. the electoral college certified at the end of a very lengthy process that started at 1:00 on wednesday afternoon, now pushing 4:00 in the morning in washington dc on thursday, the electoral college, 306 for joe biden and kamala harris in 232 for donald trump and mike pence. this is not the first time you had a sitting vice president preside over intellectual college, you had al gore doing this, hubert humphrey was supposed to do this when he was vice president having been defeated by richard nixon in 1968 during the joint session of congress in january 1969, he would comfort left the country, he went to attend the funeral overseas of the former secretary-general of the united

nations so he was not there. this process is now done, the house and senate have certified the electoral college. john: we thought there was going to be some drama on the house floor, we got a taste of it but it was fairly muted and this is all wrapped up now, joe biden is president-elect. what is the next order of business for the house of representatives and the senate? >> not much at this stage, probably the first thing they will look at is the united states capitol secure enough to conduct an inauguration. that has got to be the first order of business after what happened today. that is a real problem going into this. number 2 we have two new senators elect from georgia. we will have what they call pro forma sessions over the next couple of weeks. we don't expect any legislative business anytime soon and so they will probably swear in senators elect a pay -- warnock ossoff in the coming days probably before president-elect

biden takes office. you might start to see cabinet nominations being sent, they do this proactively is what they have to do. it doesn't become official until you get into office but they might do some of that, depends on the level of cooperation between chuck schumer who is poised to be the new senate majority leader and new senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. those are the main things and the other thing they have to do in washington is unequivocally must lower the temperature after what happened in the capital, the marauders roaming about the building and this near fistfight in the back of the chamber at 2:00 in the morning between colin allred, democratic congressman from texas, and andy harris, the republican congressman from the eastern shore of maryland. everybody thought people would come together and there would be

a little more love, peace and harmony after what happened, people fearing for their lives but that was not the case, that shows how frayed these nerves are after a raucous election, a raucous couple of months certifying the electoral college and bedlam at the capital today. jillian: we know the final outcome is 306 electoral votes for joe biden, 232 for donald trump, going forward into the new administration, democrats will control the house, the senate, the executive. are there any checks left on democrats going into the new period, the new world of 2021? >> there certainly are in the sense they don't have very big majorities and if you're going to move anything it has to be

something in the middle. keep in mind what has been lost in this entire conversation. we haven't talked about coronavirus relief and $2,000 checks in a week. that is something chuck schumer indicated in a press conference which i think was yesterday, hard to keep up with all the events saying that is something we are going to move, it was clear to chuck schumer democrats would be in the majority in the senate, he certainly had at that point to rafael warnock coming in, that is going to ignite quickly and the reason the $2,000 checks never happened to help with kim jong un for eighties many republicans didn't want it. it was very clear even though the president wanted it. can a conjure up the right number of votes was $2,000 now $1,400 because they delivered $600 in the last kim jong un for package, that something legislatively they have to look at and keep in mind that mitch mcconnell had a good working relationship with his colleague

in the senate, senator biden. now president-elect biden. jillian: we are going to leave it there, go home and try to get some shut eye, thank you for sticking with us all through the night and this morning, spectacular job. we appreciate hearing your perspective and hope you get home safely. >> reporter: thank you, in peace. john: let's check with judith miller, brad blakeman and steve hayes. it is easy to forget some of the things that did happen but one of the things that has been announced is joe biden choosing merrick garland to be his attorney general. i wonder, first of all what you think about the pic and is merrick garland a safe pick for biden to get through the senate? chad was talking about biden's relationship with many senators.

>> merrick garland is a safe pick, a strong pick. legal scholars on the left and right have praised merrick garland's experience, background, knowledge of the law and the kind of pic i think unlike joe biden's other pics which catering to the left wing of his party, this is the kind of pic that sends a message at an important time that at least some of what joe biden does is meant to restore order in places like the department of justice and reach across the aisle. i expect merrick garland will get support from republicans, maybe significant support from republicans. john: it will be a 50/50 senate with democrats having the power because kamala harris can break a tie. what do you see? is this going to be a moderated senate because the voices in the middle will have so much power? >> we can only hope but i will say this.

it is a good sign that merrick garland is going to be the nominee. that will be good for the justice department and will get republican support. i happen to believe compromise for a long time has been a 4 letter word here in dc, that has to change. i believe now is the time for compromise. we deal with it in every facet our lives, personalize, business lives, why not personal and political lives as well? i am looking forward to a time of compromise in america, joe biden is a creature of the senate, very comfortable with legislation so i have great hope for the coming year as far as bipartisan participation. >> nancy pelosi was warning to her fourth term as speaker of the house. i remember that day, seems like not that long ago when george w. bush handed her the gavel and with a big smile on his face it

gives me great pleasure to introduce madame speaker, the first female speaker of the house. what a difference and only a decade or so ago, what a difference from the relationship nancy pelosi and donald trump have exhibited. he has called her some terrible names, she tore up his speech. is that kind of thing going to come to a end? >> i would hope so. i was really comforted tonight or this morning by the relative lack of drama in the proceedings as congress did its duty and republicans and democrats certified joe biden as the next president of the lack of drama, compromise doesn't make headlines but it is a very good thing it is desperately needed after four years of a very divisive president who really

relished in creating enemies and wouldn't compromise. i would like to be leave what we have seen in the past presidency is an anomaly, something that will not be repeated. it should certainly be a warning to all of us about the institutions we treasure and value that they are fragile and they shouldn't be taken for granted. if we can reach out across the aisle and find common ground, what happened today will be a lesson well learned but we still have 14 more days until january 20th and i continue to be worried about what lies ahead if the president does not accept political reality, if he doesn't understand his constitutional obligation. john: he has very few allies left. the events of the day finally convinced a lot of people to pack it in.

there are not many people suggesting the election was stolen from him anymore and now that the vote is officially certified in congress he is out of ammunition. >> he is. on the one hand listening to mike pence read the final tally you think back on the last 9 weeks and think what a waste, what a tragedy, the narcissism of one man would drag a country through this the way donald trump did. we have known for more than eight weeks what the result of the selection were. there weren't serious claims of widespread fraud. there was no chance the election was going to be overturned, donald trump made that case, he had amplifiers in republicans in congress, too many republicans in congress including 138 who

just voted to object to the electors from pennsylvania. he had amplifiers in the media. it was a disgrace and it was totally needless. four people died today, the us capital was overrun. what a black mark on our history and all in service to one man and his narcissism and his unwillingness to acknowledge reality and his desire to continue to live in a fantasy. jillian: we are now in a situation the nation has to act. is the us capital ready to host the biggest event in four years, the presidential inauguration? is the nation ready from a psychological perspective? is the nation ready in terms of a security perspective? what happened today was a major national security event. some people comparing it to what happened on 9/11, dismal

security failures -- what do you think is going to happen with a couple weeks until inauguration? >> we will rise to the occasion, a quick review of procedures, it is underway as we speak. our country will be ready for the transfer of a new administration, the president-elect will take the oath on january 20th at noon as described by the constitution. it will be peaceful, it will be orderly and because of covid-19 we won't have the huge crowd we normally would have so in a sense that is a blessing for the security folks but i can assure you between law enforcement agencies, the military takes the lead in the inauguration with the congress, they are charged with putting on the inaugural. between military, law enforcement, we will be well prepared, lessons will be learned today and there will be changes made because of that.

jillian: inauguration a couple weeks away but we are in the middle of a transition right now in the sense the biden transition team is in washington, they fanned out across department and agencies, the trump administration started the process of getting them briefed on everything they need to know, this is an incredibly fragile moments not just for the country right now but during any transition. >> makes cooperation between the trump administration the biden administration all that more important for reasons we discussed over the past 3 hours. the united states is at a position of great vulnerability anytime we transfer power but particularly when the transfer of power is as broad as it has been over the past nine weeks. i would hope the resistance we have seen from the trump administration particularly related to briefing the biden

administration, making a clean handoff will end and if those instructions were coming from the president that they be disregarded. it is important we have these briefings, this continuity in government. i hope any trump administration officials in positions of responsibility charged with sharing information with the biden administration do so without delay. jillian: thanks for sticking it out with us all morning long. that does it for us, 3 hours, go get some sleep, thanks so much. that is everybody, thanks for joining us this morning. it has been great to be with you, signing out. john: a day i hope we will never see the likes of again, four people are dead but democracy

and this republic live on. great working with you. "fox and friends first" is live up next. votes for president of the united states are as follows, joseph r biden junior of the state of delaware has received 306 votes, donald j trump of the state of florida has received 232 votes. jillian: moment ago congress certify the 2020 election results declaring joe biden the 40 sixth president of the united states. neil: two house members nearly brawling on the floor, historic and horrific day, total chaos on capitol hill. you are watching nd