CNBC Politics

Members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet issued harsh rebukes of the mayhem at the U.S. Capitol.

Joe Biden blasted the "chaos" at the Capitol, which began after President Trump urged supporters to protest confirmation of the Democrat's victory by Congress.

"For two months now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth," wrote Obama.

Several GOP lawmakers who have stoked President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud spoke out on Wednesday as rioters stormed the Capitol.

Pro-Trump rioters overran the Capitol as lawmakers carried out the Electoral College vote count.

"I was so embarrassed and ashamed to see what was going on the House and Senate floor," former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said.

The stinging statement from Mattis is the second time he has broken his silence since leaving the Trump administration.

Supporters of outgoing Republican President Donald Trump protest at statehouses across the U.S. on Wednesday.

The head of the group, Jay Timmons, was once executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The former Tennessee senator also told CNBC on Wednesday the Republican Party should not return to the leadership of the past four years.

"Everybody knew that there would be people who were interested in doing nothing else but creating havoc in the Capitol," Leon Panetta told CNBC.

Pence's statement breaking with Trump came before the vice president was due to preside over a joint session of Congress to declare Joe Biden the victor.

The Capitol is under lockdown after pro-Trump rioters stormed the building, stopping Congress from confirming Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.

The push from the party's most liberal members comes just two weeks before Trump will be forced to leave office anyway.

"At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault," the president-elect said from Wilmington, Delaware.

The FBI said it had dispatched with two suspicious devices that were uncovered in Washington after reports of improvised explosives on the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats will have unified control of Capitol Hill and the White House for at least the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden's term.

Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since the first half of President Barack Obama's first term.

Debates over the Electoral College results were halted and the U.S. Capitol was locked down as massive crowds of Trump supporters stormed the building.