The US Congress has formally certified Republican president-elect Donald Trump’s November election victory over Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris, clearing the way for him to be sworn in on January 20th.
The certification of the election results on Monday in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was accomplished in a brief, formal ceremony during a joint session of the House of Representatives and Senate. It was presided over by Ms Harris, acting in her vice-presidential role as president of the Senate.
The quadrennial ritual stood in sharp contrast to four years ago when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block the certification of then-president Trump’s 2020 loss to Democratic president Joe Biden.
Mr Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, and had warned throughout his 2024 campaign that he harboured similar concerns until his November 5th defeat of Ms Harris.
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“Congress certifies our great election victory today – a big moment in history. MAGA!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday.
The joint session of Congress proceeded as a winter storm hovered over the nation’s capital, dropping about 15cm of snow and snarling travel.
The final certification backed up preliminary findings that Mr Trump won 312 electoral college votes to Ms Harris’s 226.
Republicans also captured a majority in the US Senate and held a narrow edge in the House in November’s election, which will give Mr Trump the party support he needs to implement his planned agenda of tax cuts and a crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally.
Democrats did not try to block certification of Mr Trump’s victory on Monday.
“We must renew our commitment to safeguarding American democracy,” No 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark said in a statement earlier in the day. “As elected leaders, our loyalty must be to the constitution, first and always. We are here to honour 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 through Mr Trump’s swearing-in.
The Capitol grounds were ringed by metal fences hundreds of metres from the US Capitol, and accessible only via checkpoints guarded by uniformed police officers.
Convoys of black police vehicles were on hand, led by a 10-wheel Baltimore police mobile command centre. New York Police Department reinforcements were also patrolling the area.
Inside, extra teams of uniformed US Capitol Police officers were checking IDs at entrance sites including doors and underground tunnels leading to the House and Senate chambers.
Mr Trump has said he plans to pardon some of the more than 1,500 people charged with taking part in the January 6th, 2021, assault on the Capitol, when a mob fought with police, smashing its way in through windows and doors and chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” referring to Mr Trump’s then-vice president.
Rioters surged past police barricades, assaulting about 140 officers and causing more than $2.8 million in damage. Several police officers who battled protesters died in the weeks that followed, some by suicide.
As a result of that day’s violence, Congress passed legislation late in 2022 bolstering guardrails to ensure that the certification process is administered in a legal manner.
Many of these changes were directly in response to Mr Trump’s actions leading up to and including January 6th, 2021. For example, the new law asserts that the vice-president’s role is largely ceremonial. – Reuters
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