Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election on Jan. 6, marking the final ceremonial step to confirm Trump as the next commander-in-chief.
Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, officiated the certification during a joint session of Congress and declared her erstwhile rival the winner in the presidential contest.
Congress Certifies Trump as President-Elect
With all electoral votes counted and reported, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the certification of her 2024 presidential election loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
Harris also confirmed the certification of JD Vance as vice president-elect.
Trump and Vance received 312 electoral votes, putting them well above the 270-vote threshold.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, received 226 electoral votes.
As the votes were announced, Republicans and Democrats cheered their parties’ candidates.
Certification Begins
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) gaveled in the joint session of Congress. Vice President Kamala Harris then announced the commencement of the session to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
Trump defeated Harris in the Nov. 5 election with 312 to 226 electoral votes.
States are submitting the results of their electoral votes to Congress in a box. The congressional session goes through each state, counting the electoral votes.
Garland: ‘I Am Proud’ of Jan. 6 Prosecutors
Attorney General Merrick Garland marked the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach by reaffirming his support for federal law enforcement’s response to the incident.
“January 6 was a violent attack on the law enforcement officers defending the Capitol, and it was an unprecedented attack on a cornerstone of our system of government—the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next,” Garland said in a statement, echoing the remarks of other administration officials.
The attorney general praised the Justice Department’s years of investigative work surrounding the breach, noting that more than 1,500 people had been charged with various crimes.
Throughout those prosecutions, officials “conducted themselves in a manner that adheres to the rule of law and honors our obligation to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of everyone in this country,” Garland said.
His comments were an apparent response to critics who say the Biden administration has weaponized the Justice Department to target its political opponents.
One of those critics is President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to begin pardoning Jan. 6 defendants “in the first hour” of his presidency, according to a December interview with Time magazine.
Garland’s remarks also coincide with Congress’s scheduled certification of Trump’s 2024 presidential victory.
Biden Pens Op-ed Urging Remembrance of Capitol Riot
President Joe Biden said, “We cannot forget” the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as the nation moves forward with a new presidential administration.
In an op-ed published on Sunday in The Washington Post, Biden criticized efforts to “rewrite” the history surrounding the U.S. Capitol breach, during which protesters he described as “violent insurrectionists” delayed Congress’s certification of the 2020 election results.
“In time, there will be Americans who didn’t witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand but will learn about it from footage and testimony of that day, from what is written in history books and from the truth we pass on to our children. We cannot allow the truth to be lost,” Biden wrote.
Biden reiterated his oft-repeated claim that those who protested at the Capitol that day posed a threat to democracy and urged the nation to acknowledge the incident as such “every year.”
Others have refuted that narrative, however, noting that many protesters were waved into the Capitol by U.S. Capitol Police and that most did not engage in violence.
Harris Vows to Perform ‘Sacred’ Certification Duty
Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed on Monday that she will certify the results of the 2024 presidential election without challenge in her role as president of the Senate.
Describing the peaceful transfer of power as “one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris pledged to uphold that principle in a video shared on social media platform X.
“This duty is a sacred obligation, one I will uphold, guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution, and my unwavering faith in the American people,” Harris said.
The outgoing vice president’s pledge was made four years after President Donald Trump urged Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the 2020 election results.
The request—which Pence denied—sparked a debate over the vice president’s role in the certification process. Congress consequently passed a law in 2022 clarifying that the vice president’s role is ceremonial only.
Trump, now president-elect, will be sworn in for a second presidential term on Jan. 20.
Trump: ‘A Big Moment in History’
Hours before Congress was set to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump took a moment to reflect on the historic nature of the day.
“Congress certifies our great election victory today—a big moment in history. MAGA!” Trump wrote in all caps on his Truth Social platform.
The certification marks the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, for which more than 1,500 people were indicted.
A sea of red converged on Washington that day as thousands of Trump’s supporters arrived from across the country to protest the certification of the 2020 election, which they contended was stolen from him.
The Process
Lawmakers from both chambers will gather in the House chamber, which is traditionally used for joint sessions, at 1 p.m. ET to begin the process of certification.
Under the process mandated by law, the official electoral slates will be transported into the House chamber in large mahogany boxes. Harris will then open the sealed electoral slates and hand them to the congressional tellers to be read aloud in alphabetical order.
As these votes are read off, lawmakers have the opportunity to raise any objections they see fit, so long as both a representative and a senator sign off on the objection. At that point, both chambers would meet for two hours to debate the objection before returning to a joint session.
These objections have been a relatively common fixture of American political life in the 21st century, with objections to certain electoral votes brought in 2001, 2005, 2017, and 2021. This year, however, Democrats have indicated that they expect no objections will be brought against certifying Trump’s win.
Jan. 6, 2021
Though Jan. 6 was once seen as a relatively uneventful day in American political life, for members of both parties, the day can’t help but recall the events that unfolded four years prior.
During a speech at the Ellipse four years ago, Trump, alleging that the 2020 election results were tainted by fraud, told his supporters to go to the Capitol to “peacefully and patriotically” protest the certification of the results.
In the speech, Trump urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject certain electoral slates from key battleground states.
When the crowd arrived at the Capitol, chaos ensued as some protesters entered the Capitol. Most entered through the main entrances, though a minority entered through smashed windows.
Ultimately, the Capitol was cleared of protesters after Trump urged his supporters to leave. Though some damages had been done to the building and some offices, certification proceeded without further objections.
Critics of Trump alleged that the Capitol breach was the culmination of an attempted insurrection against the U.S. government.
Supporters of Trump say the narratives surrounding the events of the day have been misrepresented and note Trump’s role in ending the breach and how he left office unchallenged on Jan. 20, 2021.
Epoch Times reporters Joseph Lord and Samantha Flom contributed to this report.