Before introducing his Justice Department picks from Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday, Biden offered comments on Wednesday's chaos at the Capitol which he deemed "one of the darkest days in the history of our nation" and "an unprecedented assault on our democracy."

"All of us here grieve the loss of life, grieve the desecration of the people's house. But what we witnessed yesterday was not dissent. It was not disorder. It was not protests. It was chaos," Biden said. "They weren't protesters. Don't dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists."

Biden placed blame on Trump who, he said, for the past four years has "made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law clear in everything he has done."

"He unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset. And yesterday was but the culmination of that unrelenting attack," Biden said.

Biden also predicted the response would have been very different had the majority of rioters been Black.

"No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, there wouldn't have been -- they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true, and it is unacceptable, totally unacceptable," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office for his "seditious acts" following Wednesday's rioting at the Capitol, she said at a press conference Thursday.

The California Democrat is threatening impeachment proceedings if Pence does not.

-ABC News' Mariam Khan

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put out a statement Thursday, saying the riots within the Capitol Building Wednesday represent "a massive failure" of "institutions, protocols, and planning that are supposed to protect the first branch of our federal government."

"A painstaking investigation and thorough review must now take place and significant changes must follow," McConnell added. "Initial bipartisan discussions have already begun among committees of oversight and Congressional Leadership."

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is resigning from her position in the wake of rioting at the U.S. Capitol.

She cites the storming of the Capitol by "supporters of the President" as an "entirely avoidable event" in a letter she is sending out to her colleagues announcing her resignation.

"Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed. As I'm sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside," Chao said.

Chao is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, a Republican, at a press conference on what he called "anti-disinformation Monday," ran through major voter conspiracies pushed by Trump, his allies and far-right media outlets and debunked them one-by-one in an effort to restore faith in Georgia's election system.

"The reason I'm having to stand here today is because there are people in positions of authority and respect who have said their vote didn't count and it's not true," Sterling said, stressing to Georgians that their votes count ahead of critical runoffs in the state which will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.

"It's Whac-A-Mole again. It is Groundhog Day again. I'm going to talk about the things I've talked about repeatedly for two months, but I'm going to do it for one last time," Sterling said, adding he "screamed" at the radio upon hearing audio of the phone call between Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger because theories Trump questioned have already been "thoroughly debunked."

For example, Sterling, responding to those who claim there were roughly 2,500 people who voted without being registered, said, "Let's just be clear about this: you can't do it!" He said, "So that number is zero," going on to debunk other theories.

Asked if he believes, as some have said, that Trump's phone call was an attack on democracy, Sterling said he'd leave others to make that decision before adding he felt it was "out of place."

"I found it to be something that was not normal -- out of place -- and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state," Sterling said.

Asked about Raffenperger's desire to have the phone call recorded and whether he was concerned about anything improper being said or needing to release it later, Sterling said it was recorded "out of an abundance of caution"

"I think given the environment we're in right now, the political situation that we're in, the history of the president, knowing that he sometimes doesn't necessarily characterize things as they might have actually occurred, it was out of abundance of caution," Sterling said.

"I'm sure the president's side may have recorded it, too. They may have been the ones who leaked part of that, too," he added.