California leaders are among the chorus of voices condemning a violent crowd that overtook the U.S. Capitol building, as Congress met to count the Electoral College vote and declare Joe Biden as the next President of the United States.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the violent demonstration "reprehensible," describing it as an "outright assault on our democracy."
San Francisco Congresswoman and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi joined with her Senate colleague Chuck Schumer to demand President Trump condemn the mob and tell his supporters to disperse immediately.
Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee told her constituents that she was in a safe location. Lee, along with Pelosi and the rest of Congress was in the building when it was breached.
Several people have been injured and one woman at least has been shot in the conflict, and is in critical condition.
The circumstances around the shooting were not immediately clear.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives who represents Bakersfield, told CBS News that he had spoken to President Trump by phone and urged him to condemn the mob and tell his supporters to disperse.
"This is not who we are," Rep. McCarthy said.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed took it a step further, calling it an "attempted coup encouraged by the President of the United States," and a culmination of years anti-democratic actions by Trump.
Several hours after the violence broke out, President Trump did release a taped statement telling his supporters to "go home in peace," but he continued to push the false narrative that the election had been stolen from him, saying he won in a landslide.
The National Guard, Secret Service, FBI and other federal agencies are responding to the siege.
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