Four years after Trump’s supporters rioted inside the U.S. Capitol to protest his loss in the 2020 election, Congress on Monday announced that President-elect Donald Trump will vote for Kamala in the 2024 election.・Certified victory over Vice President Harris.
Harris accepted her defeat the day after the Nov. 5 election, presiding over a joint session of the U.S. and Japanese chambers of Congress. House of Representatives and Senate. She remained neutral as she announced the final tally of electoral votes (312 for Trump, 226 for Harris), but House Republicans cheered.
The roughly 30-minute event confirming Trump’s return to power unfolded as a neat, solemn ceremony, once again resembling its traditional role as a non-controversial formality in the presidential transition process. But the echoes of the deadly riot still echo at the Capitol as Democrats and Republicans continue to battle over how to commemorate the history of January 6, 2021.
“I strongly believe that American democracy is only as strong as our will to fight for it,” Harris told reporters after the election certification.
“Today, American democracy stood up,” she said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York set the tone in remarks on the floor early Monday, calling the Capitol riot “one of the most shameful and reprehensible events in the history of this great nation.” ” he called.
Reacts while using a gavel next to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) during a joint session of Congress to certify Donald Trump’s election at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2025 in Washington, U.S. Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris. R
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
He warned of the dangers of “election denialism” and condemned but scorned those who tried to “whitewash” the events of the riot. Possibility of President Trump’s pardon To those who participated.
After the 2020 election, President Trump falsely denied President Joe Biden’s victory and addressed then-Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the certification, during the January 6, 2021, session of Congress. He urged them to reject the electoral votes.
Harris, who presided over Monday’s proceedings, did not challenge the election results or promote false conspiracy theories that undermine confidence in the results, as Trump did.
Nor have Ms. Harris and her allies taken a flurry of legal actions to overturn the election results, as did Mr. Trump and his allies.
Democrats didn’t either. raise an objection Some Republican senators and most Republican House members tried to influence the election results during Monday’s certification process, as they did in 2021.
Mr. Harris, in a recorded video. First obtained by NBC Newssaid his role is a “sacred duty” and that he is “guided by love of country, loyalty to the Constitution, and unwavering faith in the American people.”
But while the process may be returning to its pre-riot roots, the scars left by 2021 are still visible.
The parliament building was underground strict security when lawmakers meet to certify an election. of Department of Homeland Security Congress in September designated Monday’s vote a “national special security event,” the first such designation for an electoral vote certification, prompting law enforcement at all levels to provide comprehensive security around the Capitol. He encouraged the enactment of the plan.
The recognition event also comes amid hundreds of people being jailed for their involvement in the 2021 riots. The Justice Department’s efforts to investigate and prosecute the mob, the largest investigation in U.S. history, resulted in the indictment of more than 1,580 defendants, and the conviction of approximately 1,270 of them.
attorney general merrick garland In a statement Monday morning, Justice Department prosecutors said they are “working with relentless integrity to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6th attack on our democracy.”
Trump, who was impeached for the second time for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol, vowed: Please forgive the participants -Probably includes people who assaulted police officers, but said, “There may be exceptions.”
In remarks Monday, Schumer called it “disgraceful and completely outrageous” that President Trump is considering pardoning the rioters.
Doing so, he said, would “send a dangerous message to the country and the world” and “dishonor the memory of those who died” in connection with the riots.
