The US Congress formally licensed Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s November election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, clearing the way in which for him to be sworn in on Jan. 20.
The certification of the election outcomes on Monday within the 50 states and the District of Columbia was achieved in a quick, formal ceremony throughout a joint session of the Home of Representatives and Senate. It was presided over by Harris, appearing in her vice-presidential function as president of the Senate.
The quadrennial ritual stood in sharp distinction to 4 years in the past when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to dam the certification of then-President Trump’s 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump continues to falsely declare that his 2020 defeat was the results of widespread fraud, and had warned all through his 2024 marketing campaign that he harbored related considerations till his Nov. 5 defeat of Harris.
“Congress certifies our nice election victory right now – a giant second in historical past. MAGA!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Fact Social on Monday.
The joint session of Congress proceeded whilst a winter storm hovered over the nation’s capital, dropping about 6 inches (15 cm) of snow and snarling journey.
The ultimate certification backed up preliminary findings that Trump received 312 Electoral Faculty votes to Harris’s 226.
Republicans management white home, Congress
Republicans additionally captured a majority within the US Senate and held a slim edge within the Home in November’s election, which can give Trump the celebration assist he must implement his deliberate agenda of tax cuts and a crackdown on immigrants residing within the nation illegally.
Democrats didn’t attempt to block certification of Trump’s victory on Monday.
“We should renew our dedication to safeguarding American democracy,” No. 2 Home Democrat Katherine Clark stated in an announcement earlier within the day. “As elected leaders, our loyalty have to be to the Structure, first and at all times. We’re right here to honor the desire of the individuals and the rule of regulation.”
Safety inside and out of doors the Capitol was heightened in preparation for the certification and was anticipated to stay in place by way of Trump’s swearing-in.
The Capitol grounds have been ringed by steel fences lots of of yards from the U.S. Capitol, and accessible solely by way of checkpoints guarded by uniformed law enforcement officials.
Convoys of black police automobiles have been available, led by a 10-wheel Baltimore police cell command middle. New York Police Division reinforcements have been additionally patrolling the realm.
Inside, further groups of uniformed U.S. Capitol Cops have been checking IDs at entrance websites together with doorways and underground tunnels resulting in the Home and Senate chambers.
Trump has stated he plans to pardon a few of the greater than 1,500 individuals charged with participating within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, when a mob fought with police, smashing its means in by way of home windows and doorways and chanting, “Dangle Mike Pence,” referring to Trump’s then-vice president, in a failed bid to cease Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
Within the 2021 melee on the Capitol, rioters surged previous police barricades, assaulting about 140 officers and inflicting greater than $2.8 million in injury. A number of law enforcement officials who battled protesters died within the weeks that adopted, some by suicide.
Because of that day’s violence, Congress handed laws late in 2022 bolstering guardrails to make sure that the certification course of is run in a authorized method.
Many of those modifications have been immediately in response to Trump’s actions main as much as and together with Jan. 6, 2021. For instance, the brand new regulation asserts that the vp’s function is basically ceremonial.