US State Dept website says terms of Trump, Pence ended; messages pulled down

The US Department of State's website on Monday (local time) displayed a curious message on the pages of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, claiming that their terms had ended, accompanied with a timestamp.

The US Department of State's website on Monday (local time) displayed a curious message on the pages of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, claiming that their terms had ended, accomped with a timestamp.

"Donald J. Trump's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:42:55," read Trump's biography on the website.

Vice President Mike Pence's biography on the state department website was also changed.

"Michael R. Pence's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:46:38," the message read.

The reasons behind the messages are not clear.

After some time the messages were removed and the site was down and displayed the following message: "We're sorry, this site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again in a few moments."

Some local media as well as social media there were speculations that it was apparently the handiwork of "disgruntled State Deptartment staffer". The White House and the State Department has not commented n the incident so far.

This comes as US House of Representatives is pushing forward with articles of impeachment against Donald Trump for his role in encouraging a mob of his supporters to run riot at the Capitol on January 6, though House Republicans blocked a measure calling on Mike Pence and the Trump cabinet to remove the president by invoking the 25th Amendment, delaying consideration until Tuesday. The House will vote on impeachment on Wednesday.

Chaotic and violent scenes erupted at the Capitol on Wednesday as supporters of Trump stormed the building to protest the Electoral College vote, forcing a lockdown and confrontations with the police.

Wednesday's violence came hours after Trump encouraged his supporters to fight against the election results as Congress was certifying Biden's victory in the November vote.

( With inputs from ANI )