Today as the members of the United States Congress converged in the U.S. Capitol building to count the electoral college votes from the November election, a group of Christians marched around the Washington D.C. Capitol praying and blowing shofars. The Jericho March sought to appeal to heaven to influence the proceedings of a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate. However, their efforts were overshadowed when some supporters of President Trump resorted to violence as they breached police barricades outside the Capitol building.
Trump Rally Gets Out of Hand and Overshadows Jericho March
In conjunction with the Jericho March, Trump supporters—both religious and otherwise—convened for a rally backing Trump’s efforts to have the results of the election overturned. The Trump rally, held just south of the White House, started out peacefully. On the Jericho March website, an agenda for the event indicated the group was planning on joining the rally after other activities such as prayer and blowing shofars.
President Trump’s pastor, Paula White, opened the Trump rally in prayer. White, who is known for a distinct style of praying which emphasizes spiritual warfare, asked God to “overturn any spirit of fear, intimidation, worry, anxiety.” She asked God to give those gathered a “holy boldness.” White declared Proverbs 18:10 and asked repeatedly for justice to be done. White advocated for Trump, implying that Trump had done everything God had called him to do while in office. She said Trump deserved recognition for standing for things like religious freedom and the unborn. White said the president has “walked in [God’s] ways,” and declared she was putting a “hedge of protection” around the president. She concluded her prayer with the Lord’s Prayer.
High-profile leaders such as former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Representative Morris (“Mo”) Brooks (R-AL), and the president’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. also showed up to speak to the crowd and show their support of the president.
And then President Trump himself came onstage.
“Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you,” Trump said from the rally stage.
Meanwhile, in a note to members of Congress sent just before the joint session convened, Pence indicated he would not be doing anything outside of his official capacity in the proceedings and would not, therefore, push to overturn the results of the November election. Pence wrote:
As a student of history who loves the Constitution and reveres its Framers, I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress, and no Vice President in American history has ever asserted such authority.
However, Pence did not dismiss the claims the Trump administration has made concerning voter fraud. He went on to say:
Given the voting irregularities that took place in our November elections and the disregard of state election statutes by some officials, I welcome the efforts of Senate and House members who have stepped forward to use their authority under the law to raise objections and present evidence.
Republican Representative Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) objected to the results of the election from Arizona. He was joined by other GOP leaders such as Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
