For two centuries, certification of the results of the U.S. presidential election was little more than a ceremonial endorsement by Congress.
The media virtually ignored the day of the official Electoral College count, a routine procedural step on the path to the inauguration of the new president.
It’s hard to imagine that the vast majority of Americans thought about the event for more than a moment before January 6, 2021, when rioters — egged on by Donald Trump and his incessant, baseless claims that the election had was stolen – ransacked the Capitol. to try to stop the count.
The United States may never again have the luxury of being so blasé about January 6th.
And yet, on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris calmly presided over the ceremony to certify the victory of Trump, her Republican rival in the 2024 election. Harris announced that Trump had received 312 electoral college votes to her 226 , to the applause of Congress.
US Vice President Kamala Harris presided over a joint session of Congress that certified Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, with each political camp cheering their party’s candidate in the presidential race.
Exactly four years ago, Vice President Mike Pence had to be evacuated from the Senate to safety., after admitting that his boss, Trump, had lost this election, while a crowd outside the Capitol chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” »
The contrast between the two days could not be more stark.
“I welcome the return of order and civility to these historic debates,” Pence said said Monday.
“Democracy can be fragile”
In a video message released Monday morning, Harris described her role in the certification as a “sacred obligation” to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” she said. “And it’s up to each of us to defend our most cherished principles.”
Four years after the riots that threatened to alter the results of a free and fair election, it is far from clear how Americans will view the events of January 6, 2021, as Trump returns to office and time passes.
President Joe Biden is urging Americans not to pretend what happened that day didn’t happen.
“A relentless effort has been underway to rewrite, even erase, the history of that day,” Biden said in an opinion piece. published in the Washington Post.
“We cannot allow the truth to be lost,” he added.
“Thousands of rioters marched across the National Mall and scaled the walls of the Capitol, breaking windows and breaking down doors,” Biden continued. “Law enforcement officials were beaten, dragged, knocked unconscious and trampled.”
Trump is promising to forgive “a large portion” of those convicted for their role in the riots, potentially on his first day in office, January 20.
The new president has not made it clear which crimes he is willing to pardon. Still, Trump’s promise put a damper on the roughly 300 Jan. 6-related lawsuits that have yet to reach court.
About a thousand of those arrested have pleaded guilty, but now, emboldened by Trump’s imminent return to the Oval Office, the defendants have little incentive to strike a deal with prosecutors.
Some political commentators believe that the electoral college count has now definitively moved from the status of a symbolic day to that of an important day.
“More profoundly, Trump will send a message through the ages that a president who refuses to accept the outcome of a free and fair election and incites an attack on the Capitol can get away with it and return to power,” wrote Stephen CollinsonCNN’s senior political reporter.
David Frum, veteran Republican strategist written in the Atlantic that: “Nearly every institution in American society and the vast majority of its wealthiest and most influential citizens will find a way to make peace with Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021.”
This day was “a striking and alarming example of the fragility of our constitutional system”. writes author Jonathan Alter in the New York Times. “Future perceptions of January 6 will depend not only on the facts, but also on who wins the next election.”
There are signs that it may be a long time before Electoral College certification once again becomes a mundane event that everyone ignores.
The deadly attack on a truck in New Orleans has led to increased security for upcoming events in Washington, including the election certification of US President-elect Donald Trump and the state funeral of former US President Jimmy Carter.
In September, before Election Day, the Department of Homeland Security declared the count as a special national security eventThis is the first time this has happened.
As a result, security around the Capitol has been accelerated ahead of Monday’s joint session of Congress, although no one really expected a repeat of what happened four years ago.
Workers installed thousands of six-foot-tall interlocking metal fence panels along the National Mall, clearly labeled with signs reading “Police Line Do Not Cross,” and every police officer in Washington was called to duty.
Inside the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader John Thune congratulated Trump and set the stage for the Republican-controlled Congress to move forward at the pace of the new administration.
“Now the work begins to implement our agenda, and Mr. President, Republicans are ready to go,” he said.
