The US Congress on Monday certified US president-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, a formality that was remarkable for its contrast to four years ago, when the Republican summoned a mob to Washington that ransacked the US Capitol.
The president-elect spent much of his campaign facing prosecution over the 2021 insurrection, when his supporters — fueled by his false claims of voter fraud — rioted to halt the certification of his defeat to US President Joe Biden.
However, Trump, 78, was voted back into office in November last year and Monday’s ceremony went much more smoothly, even with a major winter storm blanketing the capital and much of the country in snow.
Photo: AFP
“Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida, has received 312 votes. Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes,” US Vice President Kamala Harris herself declared to assembled lawmakers after the counting was complete.
Harris — who oversaw the certification as part of her vice-presidential duties — said the official count “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration” for Trump and vice president-elect J.D. Vance to take their oaths of office on Jan. 20.
The ceremony marked the final blow to efforts to have the Republican leader face justice over the riot, the culmination of a multi-pronged alleged criminal conspiracy that prosecutors said Trump led — before they dropped all charges upon his election.
Trump has vowed to pardon an unspecified number of the rioters — about 900 of whom have admitted federal charges from trespassing and vandalism to assaulting police — describing them as “hostages.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden slammed Trump’s allies for downplaying the violence of 2021 and urged Americans to be “proud that our democracy withstood this assault.”
“We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago,” he said. “An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day.”
Just like Harris, former US vice president Mike Pence certified his own defeat alongside Trump in 2021 when, in a desperate bid to cling to power, the then-president demanded that he reject Biden’s victory.
Pence, who refused to endorse Trump, hailed “the return of order and civility” in a statement praising “admirable” Harris for fronting up in defeat and fulfilling her duty.
Lawmakers in both parties have occasionally used the certification process to challenge elections, but more than half of US House of Representatives Republicans rejected the results in 2021.
No Democratic leaders followed the Republican example this time around and there were no objections to certifying Trump’s victory — a process that took barely half an hour.
“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for — every single person, their willingness to fight for — and respect the importance of our democracy,” Harris told reporters afterward. “Otherwise, it is very fragile, and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis. And today, America’s democracy stood.”
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