What Pence did not do, as called for in the normal procedure was ask for objections.
There were some, but after the ruckus had died down, that part of the proceedings was skipped.
@Smokin JoeNo, the objections were NOT skipped. That myth is like a bad case of herpes that will just not go away. I've laid that out here before. There were some media reports on the afternoon of January 6 that the objections would not be heard, and the election just certified. I remember watching that chryon scrolling on the TV that afternoon and thinking that was a bad idea.
But what actually happened is that after the riot, there were some Republican Senators who withdrew their objections, and therefore there was not the one Senator and one Representative sponsor necessary to object to some state certifications. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia had planned to object to Georgia's electors, but withdrew it after the riot so there wasn't the requisite sponsorship by a Senator.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kelly-loeffler-resinds-objection-electionHowever,
the Objections to the Arizona and Pennsylvania certifications still had sponsors, and they were properly heard, debated, and voted upon prior to the certification of the vote as a whole.
Don't take my word for it - you can literally watch the Senate debate and vote on Senator Cruz's Arizona vote on C-Span right here. First, the part of the debate before adjournment because of the riot, with Pence himself presiding:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?507698-2/senate-debate-arizona-electoral-college-vote-challenge-part-1And then the Senate returning to the chamber after the riot, continuing the debate, and then voting on Cruz's Arizona objection. Once again, Pence actually presiding at the exact event.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?507698-5/senate-debate-arizona-electoral-college-vote-challenge-part-2And then the vote on Hawley's Pennsylvania objections, again with Mike Pence presiding.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?507698-101/senate-debate-pennsylvania-electoral-college-vote-challengeThe claim that the election objections were not taken up after the riot is simply false. You can literally watch the post-riot debate and vote on the objections yourself in the above links. But if you don't want to watch the actual debate/votes above, then here is what happened:
The Election Objection filed by Senator Cruz and Representative Gosar to the certification of the Arizona electoral votes was considered separately by the two Houses, as required by the ECA. The Objection was rejected by the Senate 6-93 at 9:58 p.m. on January 6, and was rejected by the House 121-303 at 11:08 p.m. on January 6. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00001.htmhttps://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2021/h10The Election Objection filed by Senator Hawley and Representative Perry to the certification of the Pennsylvania electoral votes also was considered separately by the two Houses, as required by the ECA. That Objection was rejected 7-92 by the Senate at 12:30 a.m. on January 7, and rejected 138-282 by the House at 3:08 a.m. on January 7, 2021.https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2021/s2https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202111\The Electoral Count vote itself was not completed until about 3:40 a.m. on the 7th. So the objections were properly heard and voted upon, in the order of the role call vote, before the vote was completely. They complied 100% with the requirements of the ECA.
I watched the first of those debates and votes myself as they were happening, live. So it is incredibly frustrating to repeatedly hear people saying that they did not happen, and that the objections were ignored.
