WASHINGTON Hours after rioters violently stormed the Capitol and put the building into lockdown, lawmakers returned to the House chamber and certified Democrat Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. in the early hours of Thursday morning as the winner of the Electoral College and the next president of the United States.

What is usually a perfunctory ceremony turned into the shameful, logical and tragic conclusion of years of Republican rhetoric, as a mob of angry supporters of President Donald Trump broke through numerous police barricades, roamed the Capitol halls and fought with officers. One woman was fatally shot outside the House chamber.

But hours later, lawmakers returned, undeterred by the terrorist tactics, and finished their count of the Electoral College votes.