Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Washington is ready to certify the 2024 election results on Jan. 6, after “major changes” were made to avoid another Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I will point out that in any of these events, as you saw in New Orleans, horrible things can happen. And we know it. But how prepared are we? The Minnesota Democrat said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“What we discovered on January 6 – and it could have been any event, but this one is forever etched in our minds,” she said.
Changes have been made since the last certification procedure four years ago.
There is a new Capitol Police chief who now has the ability to directly request assistance from the National Guard in an emergency and new leadership for the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms. There are a growing number of Capitol Police officers, all receiving riot gear instead of just a small percentage.
“These were dramatic changes. We made 103 recommendations. And my job as chair of the rules committee was to make sure everything was done,” she said. “We have, as you know, a new police chief, improved morale, several hundred additional officers, and we have a plan and a strategy in place.”
SEE ALSO: How the House GOP Upended the Democrats’ January 6 Narrative
Ms. Klobuchar said she is “very confident that we have made major changes” and that we have “clear leadership.”
Asked if any Democrats would object to certification of the election, as they did during Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, she said “not to my knowledge.”
“But, of course, the process allows for these objections,” she said. “If that happens, they are heard. It is the vice-president who governs them.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to certify the results of the election she lost to Mr. Trump on Monday.
Nearly 150 Republican lawmakers voted not to certify President Biden’s victory over Mr. Trump in 2020, which was certified by outgoing Vice President Mike Pence and led to Mr. Trump’s break with him.
Ms. Klobuchar discussed reform of the Electoral Count Act, which raised the state’s elector opposition threshold to 20 percent of members in each chamber. Before the reform, only one member of each chamber could initiate a challenge to the state’s voters.
SEE ALSO: Quiet Riot: joint session to confirm Trump’s victory should go smoothly this time
“Under our new law that we passed, you have to have 20% of the bodies of Congress supporting these objections before you can have a prolonged debate, because that’s what was used as a trigger, as you know, on January 6 to slow the process, and then, of course, ultimately seen by the insurrectionists as a way to derail the will of the American people,” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he hoped to see “full participation” in Congress certifying the election results, despite the major snowstorm expected to hit Washington.
“We encourage all of our colleagues not to leave town, to stay here, because, as you know, the electoral count law requires it on January 6th at 1 p.m., so whether we’re in a snowstorm or no, we’re I’m going to be in this chamber to make sure that gets done,” the Louisiana Republican said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“President Trump had one mandate, one landslide victory,” he said. “So many electoral votes and we can count them all, and we can’t delay this certification. »
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