WASHINGTON — Congress formally certified President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 victory Monday, exactly four years after he stirred up a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to disrupt the certification of his 2020 election loss and keep him in power.
Vice President Kamala Harris oversaw the certification of her defeat, which went smoothly and without drama amid a citywide snow emergency declaration.
“Democracy must be upheld by the people,” Harris told NBC News moments ahead of the certification.
One by one, the designees counted the electoral votes of each state for the winning candidates. Vice President-elect JD Vance, currently a senator from Ohio, sat in the chamber and watched from the front row.
Standing next to her at the lectern in the House chamber was Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who in 2021 helped engineer the failed objections to certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
“Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes,” Harris said after the votes were counted, pausing for applause. “Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes.”
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Four years ago, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the result and discount electors for Biden, even though Trump had failed to produce any evidence that the result was illegitimate.
This time, Democrats chose not to respond in kind, instead seeking to return Jan. 6 to its historical roots as a boring and rote affair at which the president-elect is certified without drama.
“Jan. 6th should be an unremarkable day. This is a day that the rest of America should never have to really think about it,” said newly minted Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J. “Just a pro forma certification of the election results. The fact that it is a day that still lingers in our consciousness kind of shows just how broken our politics are.”
The top House Democrat made it clear Friday that Jan. 6, 2025, would be drama-free.
“Two months ago, the American people elected Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States of America,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said as Republicans clapped. “Thank you for that very generous applause. It’s OK. There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle.
“One should love America when you win and when you lose,” Jeffries continued. “That’s the patriotic thing to do, and that’s the America that House Democrats will fight hard to preserve because we love this country. America is bigger than any one campaign, any one election or any one individual.”
On Sunday, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a snow emergency.
“We got a big snowstorm coming to D.C., and we encourage all of our colleagues: Do not leave town, stay here,” Johnson said Sunday on Fox News. “Because, as you know, the Electoral Count Act requires this on Jan. 6 at 1 p.m. So whether we’re in a blizzard or not, we’re going to be in that chamber making sure this is done.”
The certification process does not require full attendance. Many House Republicans were present, having stayed in Washington over the weekend for a retreat.
In late 2022, the Democratic-controlled Congress passed a law overhauling the certification process in a bid to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021-type event and make it harder for future presidential candidates to steal elections.
Among the changes: The vice president’s role is clarified to eliminate any room for doubt that he or she cannot refuse to count Electoral College votes that the states have already certified. And the threshold for voting on an objection to counting certain electoral votes is up from just one House member and one senator to one-fifth of each chamber. The changes also include safeguards against injecting “fake electors” into the process.
Unlike in 2021, when Trump invited his supporters to come to Washington for the certification on Jan. 6 and then urged them to “fight like hell” in a speech that morning, widespread protests were not expected this time around.
Still, Capitol Police and the Secret Service raised temporary fencing around the Capitol for security, and the certification Monday was previously declared a “national special security event.” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said the fencing will remain up through Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
