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Tonight on fox 55 news chaos at the capitol.... thousands of protesters storm the building ... force a shutdown and temporarily halt the counting of electoral votes.

A dark day in u-s capitol history.

Those are the words of vice president mike pence tonight after pro-trump rioters storm the capitol disrupting the peaceful transfer of power.happening now ... senators return to the capitol after hours of chaos to continue the electoral count.

Some senators including kelly loeffler of georgia now saying they will no longer object to counting the votes.

Good evening i'm chris mullooly.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Here's a look at the chaos, as it unfolded today in washington d.c.thousands of trump supporters gathered outside the nation's capitol claiming president trump won the election...waving signs saying top the steal carrying guns.the protests caused the capitol to go on lockdown and forced senators into hiding before they could tally the electoral college votes.that lockdown didn't stop crowds from pushing past police barricadeds and forcing their way into the building... breaking into windows and storming through its doors.

This went on for hours until the national guard and law enforcement from maryland and virginia cleared the capitol.

Right now - the scene outside teh capital is quieting down... this is after the city of washington d.c.

Has now been under curfew since 6-pm ..

Eventually pusing rioters out of the area.authorities say the capitol building has been secured..whitney wild gives us a recap of the violence at the capitol today.

3 president-elect joe biden: "our democracy's under unprecedented assault."chaos erupting on capitol hill..

Tense moments caught on camera..armed authorities blocking mobs from entering the house chamber..as members of congress flee to safety..

The attempted coup is first time the u.s. capitol has been breached..since the british attacked and burned the building in august of 18-14..

?nats-rioters: "hang mike pence!

Hang mike pence!"and after tearing through the halls of congress..

Rioters leaving an ominous message..

Right on the desk of house speaker nancy pelosi..

President-elect joe biden: "it's disorder.

It's chaos."

Arrests have been made..pipe bombs have been found outside the d-n-c, r-n-c and the capitol..and a woman has died after being shot inside the capitol.

?nats-curfew announcement: "all individuals must leave the u.s. capitol grounds or be subject to arrest.

I repeat, a curfew is in effect."voice of mayor muriel bowser, district of columbia: "we're advising everyone to leave the area."

Riot authorities have moved in on the mobs..pushing them away from the capitol..rep.

Liz cheney, house conference chair: "our job in the capitol is to count the votes.

We will count the votes, but there are serious questions about the president's involvement and responsibility for what happen here tonight, here today at the capitol and it cannot be tolerated."in washington, i'm whitney wild reporting.

Many state and local representatives here in indiana and in ohio tweeting out responses to the scene in washington d.c.this is just a handful of tweets we collected... many of which sounding there frustration and disappointments...all watching as the chaos continued on the capitol grounds.

Senator todd young tweeting "we have the right to peacefully protest, but what has occurred today goes against everything we stand for as a nation....this is not a peaceful protest, its violence and must stop."

Senator mike braun ... one of about 14 senators who intended to reject electors from contested states ... tweeting "what we're seeing at the capitol is wrong and hurts the cause of election integrity and needs to stop...rioting and violence are never acceptable."

Representative jim banks tweeting early around one this afternoon.quote "the senators are going to get their steps in today" end quote.later taking a more serious approach tweeting "peaceful protest is healthy, but what is happening at the capitol is unacceptable and unamerican.....those participating in the lawlessness and violence must be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent."

Governor eric holcomb expressing his disappointment for the mob activity at the capitol and condemning the violence.he says in part quote ' its both saddening and sickening to watch a mob devolve into thinking their rules would ever replace rule of law'.holcomb elaborated more on his position during his weekly coronavirus update...touching on the behavior of americans and how we should conduct ourselves in a constructive way.

3 joining us now is purdue fort wayne professor and political science chair michael wolf to give us some perspective about what we watched today.

3 before rioters stormed the us capitol building, about 100 protestors gathered outside the allen county courthouse to protest an election they beli ve to be a fraud.fox 55 caleb saylor was at the courthouse today and has reaction from both sides of the political spectrum about toda local and national events.

People gathered on the courthouse green around lunchtime to show their support for president donald trump and express their concerns for the future of the country tea party member and event organizer goeffrey wladecki says their main message is the same message used by president trump, the 2020 election was a fraud and stolen by democrats was amazed t at someone who didn really campaign that much get many more votes than the person he was vice president to.

Did they get out the vote?

Theye ertainly did, but we just not sure that all the votes that were counted were legal.

Across the country threw out lawsuits brought by the pres team of lawyers after finding no evidence to support the claims of fraud.

Wladecki says they fear the direction the country is headed.

Hen i hear some politicians say we want to change things and we want to set america back on a moral trajectory.

I not sure i agree with some of those people.

Democratic party chairwoman misti meehan says attacking the institutions of our elections is not the answer.

Ou know, it is that their candidate did not win, tha mean that you debase and go at the very foundation of our country.

You e got to accept tha election was valid and we need to get moving forward.

Spoke with meehan as news of the storming of the capitol building was on-going.

Meehan believes the storming of the capitol was fueled by president trump.

Is followers and his supporters can believe that he would possibly lie to and i think that he has gone out of his way to cause harm.

He is causing harm to the country and it is intentional and i believe that to be true.

Reached out to wladecki for his reaction to what happened in washington dc today, he did not return the call.

In fort wayne, caleb saylor, fox 55 news.

And caleb also reached out to graham renbarger, one of the private citizens who spoke at the tea party protest this afternoon to get reaction abou events at the capitol building, graham said he does not support the actions of those who stormed the us capitol building ?

President-elect joe biden weighing in on riots today.

Like many other politicians biden calling for an end to the violence...and demanding trump address the nation.

President trump did eventually tweet a video message telling supporters to go home in peace, while continuing to make comments about the election being stolen from him.

Later, twitter suspended the president's account for repeatedly posting false accusations about the integrity of the election.

3 3 coming up...it could be your turn to receive a covid-19 vaccine.how indiana will start administering the vaccine to hoosiers.