Quiet Riot: Joint session to confirm Trump’s victory should go smoothly this time

Some Democrats may be stewing this week over the idea of ​​certifying President-elect Donald Trump’s White House victory, but there’s little they can do about it, thanks to a new law aimed at preventing the chaos that s seized the US Capitol on January 6. 2021.

Some Trump critics are calling on Democrats to block Mr. Trump’s victory when Congress meets Monday to certify the election results, but there is barely a whisper of insurrection at the Capitol, where lawmakers must adhere to a new a measure which makes such a protest much more difficult to organize. to remove.

Democrats are also reluctant to challenge Mr. Trump’s victory after spending years attacking the Republican Party for its efforts to prevent Congress from certifying President Biden’s 2020 victory.

“We are not election deniers,” New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks said Friday as the House convened for the 119th Congress.

The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022, passed in the wake of the 2021 Capitol riots, significantly raised the threshold for challenging Electoral College certification. In years past, only one senator or representative could call a debate and vote on certifying the state’s results. It now takes 20% of legislators in each chamber to advance a challenge.

He also clarified the vice president’s role as purely ceremonial during the certification process, a response to Mr. Trump’s notorious and unsuccessful efforts to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to block Trump’s victory. Mr. Biden four years ago.

The new law leaves Congress ready to certify the results of a GOP victory in the presidential election without any Democratic objections for the first time in more than a quarter century.

Trump’s opponents outside the Capitol won’t have much of a chance to disrupt the process, either.

Increased security in the form of high fencing, additional police and 500 National Guard troops on standby will make a repeat of what happened four years ago, when hundreds of Trump supporters angry stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory. The melee caused significant destruction inside and outside the building and forced lawmakers to abandon certification and flee to safety.

The Jan. 6 certification, scheduled to take place Monday, has been declared a special national security event by the Department of Homeland Security, triggering additional assistance from dozens of public safety agencies in addition to police at the U.S. Capitol, who say they will not allow the 2021 riots to happen again.

“The eyes of the world will be on the United States Capitol to see what happens here on January 6,” said Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger. “We live in a time of increased threat to government and elected officials. Our nation’s capital stands ready to ensure that the legislative process proceeds without interruption and that our government enjoys a peaceful transfer of power.”

Chief Manger said Capitol Police, who were unprepared for the 2021 riots, are now “better staffed, better trained and better equipped” to fend off angry crowds and protesters.

Inside the Capitol, Democrats, who have protested the certification of every GOP presidential winner since 2000, have not publicly announced their intention to try to block the certification of Mr. Trump’s victory.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a staunch Trump foe who led one of his impeachment trials during his first term and opposed his 2017 victory in the House, said he did not the intention this time to try to obstruct Mr. Trump’s victory. .

“No election deniers on our side of the aisle. We don’t do that,” said Mr. Raskin, Democrat of Maryland.

In 2021, eight Republican senators and 139 GOP House members objected to Mr. Biden’s victory, citing irregularities in the vote count.

Democrats attacked the GOP for its actions despite setting a precedent.

In 2017, House Democrats opposed Mr. Trump’s election victory 11 times, citing allegations of Russian interference and voter suppression. Democrats also raised objections to President George W. Bush’s narrow victory in 2000 and his more decisive victory in 2004, citing voting irregularities.

In November, Mr. Trump won the electoral college and popular vote, sweeping all seven battleground states and leaving no doubt who won.

Yet some Democrats say he is disqualified from holding federal office because he engaged in insurrection in 2020 while trying to block Mr. Biden’s victory. Mr. Trump was charged in two criminal cases related to his actions in 2020, and both cases were dismissed. He was convicted of dozens of criminal charges in New York related to a hush money payment in a trial that critics say was politically motivated.

Last month, legal scholars David Schulte and Evan Davis urged Democrats to block certification of Mr. Trump’s victory, calling him an “oath-violating insurrectionist.”

The two academics, writing in The Hill, said Mr. Trump’s ineligibility had been confirmed by his second impeachment trial for inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

The Colorado Supreme Court also disqualified Mr. Trump, they wrote, although the Supreme Court overturned the decision. They also cited the January 6 Committee, a Democratic-led panel that ruled that Mr. Trump illegally called on Mr. Pence to use his role as Senate president to block Mr. Biden’s victory.

Democrats “must take a stand against the Electoral College votes for a person constitutionally barred from holding office,” Mr. Schulte and Mr. Davis wrote.