US Congress certifies Donald Trump election victory for Jan 20 inauguration – World

The US Congress formally certified Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November, clearing the way for him to be sworn in on January 20.

The certification of Monday’s election results in all 50 states and the District of Columbia took place in a brief formal ceremony during a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

It was chaired by Harris, acting in her vice presidential role as president of the Senate.

The quadrennial ritual stands in stark contrast to what happened four years ago, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to block the certification of then-President Trump’s 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss was the result of widespread fraud and had warned throughout his 2024 campaign that he harbored similar concerns until his defeat of Harris on November 5.

“Today Congress certifies our great electoral victory: a great moment in history. “MAGA!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

The joint session of Congress took place even as a winter storm loomed over the nation’s capital, dropping about 15 centimeters of snow and hampering travel.

The final certification supported preliminary findings that Trump won 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 226.

Republicans control the White House and Congress

Republicans also won a majority in the US Senate and had a narrow lead in the House of Representatives in the November elections, which will give Trump the partisan support he needs to implement his planned agenda of tax cuts and measures. crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally.

Democrats did not attempt to block the certification of Trump’s victory.

“We must renew our commitment to safeguarding American democracy,” the No. 2 House Democrat, Katherine Clark, said in a statement that same day.

“As elected leaders, our loyalty must be to the Constitution, first and always. “We are here to honor the will of the people and the rule of law.”

Security inside and outside the Capitol was heightened in preparation for the certification and was expected to remain in place until Trump’s swearing-in.

The Capitol grounds were surrounded by metal fencing hundreds of yards from the US Capitol and could only be accessed through checkpoints guarded by uniformed police officers.

There were convoys of black police vehicles, led by a ten-wheeled Baltimore police mobile command center. Reinforcements from the New York Police Department also patrolled the area.

Inside, additional teams of uniformed U.S. Capitol Police officers were checking IDs at entry sites, including doors and underground tunnels, leading to the House and Senate chambers.

Trump has said he plans to pardon some of the more than 1,500 people accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, when a mob fought with police, smashed their way through windows and doors and chanted: “ Hang up.” Mike Pence,” referring to Trump’s then-vice president, in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.

In the 2021 melee at the Capitol, rioters overran police barricades, assaulted about 140 officers and caused more than $2.8 million in damage. Several police officers who fought against the protesters died in the following weeks, some by suicide.

As a result of the violence that day, Congress passed legislation in late 2022 that strengthens security barriers to ensure that the certification process is administered legally.

Many of these changes were a direct response to Trump’s actions leading up to and including January 6, 2021. For example, the new law states that the vice president’s role is largely ceremonial.

in a Washington Post In an op-ed, Biden criticized Trump’s allies for downplaying the 2021 violence and urged Americans to be “proud that our democracy withstood this attack.”

“We cannot accept a repeat of what happened four years ago,” he said.

“There has been a relentless effort to rewrite, and even erase, the history of that day.”

Trump was charged with inciting the 2021 insurrection after giving a strident speech outside the White House earlier in the day, demanding that his supporters march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to investigate the House committee that investigated the riot and found that Trump had instigated it after a series of other plans to overturn an election he knew he had lost failed.

Meanwhile, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department had over the past four years charged more than 1,500 people suspected of being involved in the “unprecedented attack on a cornerstone of our system of government.”

The certification was first designated as a special national security event, with 500 National Guard members on standby.

But the federal government and Washington public schools were closed today.

“Four years ago today, our nation watched in horror as a terrorist mob stormed the Capitol grounds and desecrated our temple of Democracy in a violent attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power,” said Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was speaker. of the House of Representatives at the time of the rebellion, he stated in a statement.

“The January 6 insurrection shook our Republic to its core and left physical scars and emotional trauma on members of our Congressional community and our country that endure to this day.”



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