A mob of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump fight with members of law enforcement at a door they broke open as they storm the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Congress convened Monday to begin certifying President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, four years to the day after Trump’s supporters rioted inside the U.S. Capitol to protest his defeat in the 2020 election.
The joint session to confirm Trump’s return to power was expected to once again resemble its traditional role as a ceremonial and uncontroversial step in the presidential transition process. But the echoes of the deadly riot still reverberate through Capitol Hill, as Democrats and Republicans continue to scuffle over which history of Jan. 6, 2021, will endure.
It was “one of the most shameful, reprehensible episodes in the history of this great nation,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor of his chamber earlier Monday.
He warned of the dangers of “election denialism” and decried those trying to “whitewash” the events of the riot, while scorning Trump’s possible pardons for those who participated in it.
After the 2020 election, Trump falsely denied President Joe Biden’s victory and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the certification, to reject electoral votes as Congress met on Jan. 6, 2021.
Harris, who is presiding over Monday’s proceedings, has not challenged the election outcome or spread false conspiracy theories to undermine confidence in the results, as Trump did.
Nor have Harris and her allies pursued a flurry of legal actions to try to overturn the election outcome, as Trump and his allies did.
Democrats are also not expected to raise objections to the electoral results during the certification proceedings themselves, as some Republican senators and a majority of GOP House members did in 2021.
Harris, in a recorded video obtained first by NBC News, said her role is a “sacred obligation” and that she is “guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people.”
But while the process may be reverting to its traditionally ceremonial role in the peaceful transition of power, the scars left from 2021 can still be seen.
The Capitol complex is under heavy security as lawmakers meet to certify the election. The Homeland Security Department in September designated Monday’s vote a “National Special Security Event,” its first such designation for an electoral vote certification, prompting law enforcement at all levels to enact a comprehensive security plan around the Capitol.
The certification events are also taking place while hundreds of people are in jail for their involvement in the 2021 riot. The Justice Department’s efforts to investigate and prosecute rioters — the largest such probe in U.S. history — have yielded charges against more than 1,580 defendants and convictions for about 1,270 of them.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Monday morning that DOJ prosecutors “have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity.”
Trump, who was impeached for a second time for inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol, has vowed to pardon its participants — possibly including those who assaulted police officers, though he said there “may be some exceptions.”
Schumer, in his remarks Monday, said it is “shamefully, utterly outrageous” that Trump is considering pardons for the rioters.
To do so “would send a dangerous message to the country and the world” and “would be an insult to the memories of those who died” in connection with the riot, he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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