Congress is expected to convene Monday amid a citywide snow emergency declaration to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, exactly four years after he whipped up a mob that attacked the Capitol in a failed attempt to disrupt the certification of his 2020 election defeat and preserve it. him in power.
Four years ago, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the result and remove electors from President Joe Biden, even though Trump had failed to produce any evidence that the result was illegitimate.
This time, the Democrats do not plan to react in the same way. They intend to return January 6 to its historical roots, as a boring, routine affair where the president-elect is certified 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 Friday in a speech to applause Republicans. “Thank you for this very generous applause. It’s good. There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle.
“You have to love America when you win and when you lose,” Jeffries continued. “It’s the patriotic thing to do, and it’s the America that House Democrats will fight hard to preserve, because we love this country. America is bigger than a single campaign, a single election, or a single individual. »
Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, conceded defeat. And she is expected to preside over Trump’s certification on Monday after he visits the Capitol to swear in senators on Friday.
On Sunday, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a snow emergency that was expected to last until Tuesday morning, raising concerns about the travel of members of Congress who left the city this weekend.
“We have a big snowstorm coming to Washington and we’re encouraging all of our colleagues: Don’t leave town, stay here,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday on Fox News. “Because, as you know, the election count law requires that this be done on January 6 at 1 p.m. Whether we’re in a snowstorm or not, we will be in this chamber to make sure that this is do.”
Even if there are some absences, the certification process does not require full attendance. And many House Republicans stayed in Washington over the weekend for a retreat.
In late 2022, the Democratic-controlled Congress passed a law overhauling the certification process in an effort to prevent another January 6, 2021-type event and make it harder for future presidential candidates to steal the election.
Among the changes: The role of the vice president is clarified to remove any doubt that he cannot refuse to count Electoral College votes already certified by states. And the threshold for voting on an objection to the counting of certain electoral votes has increased from a single House member and senator to a fifth of each chamber. It also includes safeguards against injecting “fake voters” into the process.
Unlike in 2021, when Trump invited his supporters to come to Washington for certification on January 6 and then urged them to “fight like hell” during a speech that morning, widespread protests are not expected in Washington this time.
Capitol Police and the Secret Service erected temporary fencing around the Capitol for security reasons, and January 6 was declared a “special national security event.” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said the fence would remain in place until Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
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