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Precisely 4 years after a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters perpetrated the worst assault on the U.S. Capitol since Main Basic Robert Ross ordered British troopers to set it ablaze greater than two centuries earlier than, Vice President Kamala Harris presided over a joint session of Congress to provide Trump the peaceable switch of energy she was denied after the 2020 election.
Harris — who 4 years earlier was each vice president-elect and the sitting junior senator from California — led senators from their chamber throughout the Capitol’s ornate rotunda into the Home chamber at precisely 1 p.m. Monday, the date specified by American legislation for Congress to formally certify the election of the subsequent president and vp.
She smiled as she entered the chamber to well mannered applause from each side of the aisle. She walked previous a beaming Marjorie Taylor Greene, an outspoken supporter of the rioters who stormed the identical room 4 years in the past. JD Vance, vice president-elect, entered shortly after and took his seat within the entrance row. Harris stood alongside Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson as each watched because the Electoral School votes had been counted.
In contrast to 4 years in the past, when then-vice president Mike Pence learn out the outcomes and requested if senators or representatives had any objections to every state’s electoral vote totals, this 12 months’s joint session employed a brand new process devised by lawmakers within the wake of Trump’s effort to overturn the election outcomes 4 years in the past.
Although Harris referred to as the joint session to order, she performed no function within the counting or studying of the Electoral School vote totals. As an alternative, chosen tellers — members of the Home and Senate chosen by management — learn out the states and their vote leads to alphabetical order.
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U.S. Capitol Cops stand watch outdoors the U.S. Capitol constructing as snow falls forward of a joint session of Congress. Journey within the space has been snarled by Winter Storm Blair (Photograph by SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Whereas Pence had taken a second to ask for objections and skim different parliamentary language concerning the provenance of the electoral certificates, Harris didn’t interject as every state’s outcomes had been referred to as out.
Trump’s vote whole handed the requisite 270 wanted for him to say the presidency after the outcomes from the state of Texas had been learn.
As soon as all of the states had been learn out, Harris referred to as for the Home and Senate tellers to report the outcome. She then learn out the phrases that sealed her defeat, telling the joint session: “The votes for president of the United States are as follows: Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes. Kamala D. Harris of the State of California has received 226 votes.”
Harris then learn out the outcome for the subsequent vp, telling the assembled Home and Senate members that Vance had obtained 312 votes whereas her working mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, had earned 226.
“This announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States, each for a term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2025 and shall be entered. Together with the list of the votes on the journals of the House and the Senate,” she mentioned.
It was a course of that took simply half an hour — a far cry from the practically 15 hours that elapsed from the time Pence gaveled within the joint session in 2021 to when he declared Biden and Harris the winners within the wee hours of January 7 after the riot by the then-president’s supporters compelled lawmakers to shelter in place after fleeing the Home and Senate chambers for his or her lives.
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Harris mentioned it had been “obviously a very important day” and harassed that the drama-free certification that had taken place “should be the norm” (AP)
In contrast to 4 years in the past, not a single senator or consultant objected to the certification, and Harris was in a position to exit after finishing her duties.
In a pre-recorded video message, she had mentioned she would “perform her constitutional duty as Vice President of the United States to certify the results of the 2024 election” and referred to as her function “a sacred obligation—one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution, and my unwavering faith in the American people,”
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny,” she mentioned.
Harris echoed these feedback later within the day briefly remarks to reporters after the joint session had come to an in depth.
She mentioned it had been “obviously a very important day” and harassed that the drama-free certification that had taken place “should be the norm” and is “what the American people should be able to take for granted … that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.”
“Today, I did what I have done my entire career, which is take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included today performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America, will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine that the outcome of an election,” she mentioned.
Pence, Harris’s predecessor, posted a message to X (previously Twitter) calling the “peaceful transfer of power” a “hallmark of our democracy” and praising representatives and senators for crtifying the election “without controversy or objection.”
“I welcome the return of order and civility to these historic proceedings and offer my most sincere congratulations and prayers to President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance on their election to lead this great Nation,” he mentioned.
He additionally supplied commendation to the Home and Senate members — and Harris — who he mentioned “did their duty under the Constitution of the United States” with Harris’s actions being “particularly admirable” as she presided — like Pence had — “over the certification of a presidential election that she lost.”
