Joyce Issues Statement on Inexcusable Violence at U.S. Capitol

“An uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not of the people.” – Robert F. Kennedy, April 5, 1968.

As Congress reconvenes tonight, there couldn’t be a starker contrast between the law and order embodied by our nation’s legislative branch and the criminals who unleashed violence and chaos in these very same chambers just hours ago. It saddens me that good men and women had to put their lives on the line today and I pray for the family of the woman who was killed in the mayhem that followed the President’s address.

Before the chaos erupted, I announced my intention to uphold the Constitution by counting the electoral votes submitted by each state of our great union and voting to certify the will of the American people in the 2020 presidential election. What I am saying now is in essence what I said earlier, but today’s terrible events require me to say it more forcefully: 

This election was not stolen from President Trump. He lost. This fact has been made crystal clear.

Yes, there are credible reports of fraud that need to be investigated but the legitimate margins of victory for Joe Biden are and always have been far too wide to change the outcome of the election. The President and other elected officials lied when they led their constituents to believe that objections to the electoral votes presented to Congress today could reverse the election results.  

As a former prosecutor, I supported the President’s legal right to address allegations of fraud and irregularities in court so that the integrity of our elections would be preserved. Those courts, which spanned across 60 different jurisdictions, all came to the same conclusion: there was no widespread fraud that caused him to lose this election. That’s why, when the Electoral College formally cast their votes nearly a month ago, I recognized Joe Biden as President-elect. 

I say all this as someone who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, who voted against his impeachment, and who voted for him in November. But like I said in my statement earlier today, I swore an oath to God to uphold the Constitution. I consider that oath both a great honor and a great responsibility and I will not be bullied into violating it by threats of my political demise.  

What occurred today will forever be an indelible stain on our democracy.

We cannot erase that stain, but by coming together tonight and fulfilling our Constitutional duty, Congress can and will prove to the American people that truth, law and order, and democracy triumphed while falsehoods, violence, and chaos failed.  

We are the United States of America.

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