WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden quickly bottled up an eleventh-hour attempt by a House Democrat to invalidate Georgia's 16 electoral votes for Donald Trump on Capitol Hill Friday.
Biden cut off a procedural protest from Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat who was sworn in for her first term in the House of Representatives earlier this week, exclaiming, "It's over." Before she was stopped, Jayapal cited long lines to vote in Georgia on Election Day.
Watch the video here (thanks to Jamie Dupree for the heads up):
Jayapal was one of a handful of progressive House Democrats who were protesting many of the votes states cast for Trump during a joint session of Congress to certify last month's Electoral College results.
Biden's remark earned applause from many of the Republican lawmakers in attendance. In his role as Vice President and head of the U.S. Senate, Biden was tasked with emceeing the event and had already contended with several other challenges from Democrats.
All of the protests from House Democrats were deemed invalid since their Senate counterparts did not join them, a requirement for such challenges.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledged at a press conference earlier Friday that the protest was "not going to have an impact on the outcome of the election."
"That’s not the point," the California Democrat said. "But I think that people don’t want the day to pass without registering concern. In some cases, members are concerned about voter suppression. In some cases they are concerned about Russian influence on our election. There are a number of concerns."
Friday's proceedings were also interrupted at several points by protesters from the viewing area of the House chamber. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, later penned a letter expressing concern over the "excessive force" used to escort out the protesters.
Read more about Georgia's Electoral College vote:
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