48 Posts Sort By
Latest
Oldest
The Democratic leaders in the House and Senate said they hope that Monday’s peaceful certification of the election results sets an example for years to come.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reflected on the insurrection on January 6, 2021, when rioters broke into the Capitol to try to stop the certification process.
Schumer said he would not forget about that day because democracy at “certain times can be fragile,” adding, “we saw the fragility that day.”
“We are not election deniers. We lost the election, we regret it, but we believe in the strength of our democracy and that when you lose the election you roll up your sleeves and try to win the next one. You don’t deny that you lost and encourage people to do bad, bad things,” Schumer said.
The Senate Democratic leader also warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to pardon people convicted of crimes related to insurrection would “set a terrible example.”
Jeffries called the events of the insurrection “unconscionable, unacceptable and un-American,” while thanking police and other law enforcement personnel who were there that day.
“Hopefully today the peaceful transfer of power will serve as the example of how we as a country should move forward,” Jeffries said.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today about presiding over the counting of the Electoral College votes so Congress could officially certify Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election.
“Today I did what I have done my entire career,” she said Monday, noting she adhered to her oath of supporting and defending the Constitution.
Harris said she performed her constitutional duties of ensuring that voters “will have their votes counted.”
“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it,” she added. “Today, America’s democracy stood.”
Speaking about the constitutional process of election certification, Harris said it is something Americans “should be able to take for granted.”
“Today was obviously a very important day and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power,” Harris told reporters.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed concern about the idea of President-elect Donald Trump pardoning all January 6 rioters, particularly those who attacked police officers.
“I’m going to leave that to him — that’s his power to exercise — but the people who beat up police officers, I’d put them in a different category than others,” the South Carolina senator told reporters.
Newly elected Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who served on the House January 6 Committee, said that pardoning the rioters would send a terrible message.
“I think it would send exactly the wrong message to essentially say that those who beat police officers and gouged them and bear-sprayed and tried to interfere with the transfer of power should somehow be validated by a pardon,” he added.
Four years to the day after the insurrection at the US Capitol, lawsuits based on the events of January 6, 2021, continue to be heard in court.
A federal judge held a procedural hearing on eight cases where Democratic members of Congress and US Capitol Police officers are trying to hold President-elect Donald Trump accountable for the impact of the violent mob during the electoral certification of the 2020 election.
Both sides called into court via phone Monday morning to discuss with a judge in Washington how evidence is being collected from Trump’s side. Trump himself didn’t take part.
Trump’s attorneys are trying to limit the lawsuits based on his claims of presidential immunity.
The significance of the January 6 date also didn’t come up at the hearing. But Judge Amit Mehta of the DC District Court discussed with plaintiffs’ lawyers and Trump’s private attorneys the extent to which they can ask the incoming president written questions as the courts look at the breadth of immunity Trump will receive in the cases.
The trial-level court has months of work ahead of it for the lawsuits, as well as several potential appeals in the cases. On deck currently are questions of how far Trump’s official actions as president protect him from any civil fallout.
Following the hearing, one of the groups representing Capitol Police officers in the cases before Mehta noted the date.
“With the criminal proceedings ending, pardons likely, and with the political process shifting its gaze elsewhere, our civil rights lawsuit stands as one of the last opportunities to deliver justice for our clients,” said a statement from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
President Joe Biden, who had once hoped he would be elected for a second term at the White House, was focused on history Monday as the certification of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory was held on Capitol Hill.
Biden has told staff that he remains concerned that the insurrection on Capitol Hill four years ago – fueled by Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election – will be “rewritten for history,” or perhaps worse, forgotten about altogether by some, according to one senior Biden adviser.
“There’s been an attempt to whitewash it,” the adviser said. “And he’s ensuring that doesn’t happen at the same time that he’s ensuring that we do have a peaceful transfer of power and successful transition.”
Throughout the course of his presidency, including during the 2024 campaign, Biden has warned that Trump poses a serious risk to democracy. But after dropping out of the race, which led to Vice President Kamala Harris losing to Trump, Biden has remained relatively out of public view.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Biden said what Trump did “was a genuine threat to democracy.”
But, he added: “I’m hopeful that we’re beyond that.”
One senior Democrat close to the White House told CNN the president continues to maintain to this day that had he not abandoned his campaign last summer, he would have defeated Trump.
Vice President-elect JD Vance dodged a question on when he plans to officially resign from the Senate.
“I don’t know, when do you think I should resign?” Vance said, exiting the House floor after a joint session of Congress certified the 2024 election results.
Vance did not answer on whether he plans to attend former President Jimmy Carters funeral or if he would support Ohio Lt. Gov John Husted as his replacement in the Senate. CNN reported over the weekend that Husted is the leading contender to replace Vance.
It’s up to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, to appoint Vance’s replacement once the first-term senator resigns from his seat, which he must do before he and President-elect Donald Trump are sworn in on January 20.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said sitting on the House floor on Monday watching Congress certify President-elect Donald Trump’s win brought back “quite vividly” the memories of the insurrection at the Capitol four years ago.
Schiff was a member of the House when rioters entered the chamber on January 6, 2021.
He told CNN he could not help “look at different parts of the House floor and say ‘OK, that’s where I was standing when the attack began. That’s where I got my gas mask from under the seat. That’s where I heard people shouting in the gallery.’”
Schiff, who was a member of the House committee that investigated the attack, said it “is remarkable” that Trump will be back in the White House.
He said while he does think Americans care about the issue of democracy, other issues like the cost of living and food where “at the top of the list” during the election.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to speak following her meeting with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on Capitol Hill, according to one person familiar.
Republican senators on Monday remembered the Capitol riot as a dark day, not directly weighing in on President-elect Donald Trump’s assertion that January 6, 2021, was a “day of love.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN’s Manu Raju, “I was here, and I’ve said what I have to say about that day and I’m now looking forward.”
Asked about Trump potentially issuing a blanket pardon for January 6 rioters, the South Dakota senator responded, “The pardon authority is one that the president exercises, and you’ve seen President Biden recently use it more broadly than any president in history.”
Thune said it’s Trump’s call on how to proceed, adding, “my assumption is he’ll look at these on a case-by-case basis.”
Asked whether he agrees with Trump that it was a “day of love,” Sen. John Curtis of Utah, who now occupies Mitt Romney’s former seat, said, “Not for me, no.”
“It was not our country’s best day. It was not a good look for us,” said Curtis, who served in the House at the time.
Curtis wouldn’t answer directly when asked whether Trump held any responsibility.
“We still don’t have answers about what happened that day and what didn’t happen that day, and I wish we did,” he told Raju.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who famously said “count me out” on the evening of January 6 after rioters stormed the Capitol and some of his colleagues continued to reject the election results, told Raju that “four years ago was a dark day in American history. The system worked.”
“In my view, that election was certified. This one will be certified peacefully. I’m grateful for that,” he continued.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana recalled, “what I saw was a peaceful protest that turned into a riot,” adding that “people were prosecuted, and many paid the consequences.”
He said he expects Trump’s legal team to review “every single case” of people prosecuted for storming the Capitol and make sure the “punishments meted out” were “proportional to the crime,” saying that people are concerned about the Justice Department being “politicized.”
This post was updated with Thune’s comments.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who stood by his oath of office in certifying the results of the 2020 election, said Monday he welcomes “the return of order and civility to these historic proceedings” as he congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his win.
“The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy and today, members of both parties in the House and Senate along with the vice president certified the election of our new president and vice president without controversy or objection,” Pence said in a social media post.
He noted that it was “particularly admirable” how Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the certification of an election she lost.
Four years ago as Trump refused to concede the presidency, a mob pushed through barricades and eventually forced its way into the US Capitol, assaulting law enforcement officials, threatening lawmakers and trashing the building – all as Trump sat by, watching media coverage, tweeting against Pence for refusing to block the certification and, eventually, issuing a few social media posts asking the rioters to “stay peaceful.”
Pence on Monday added, “I welcome the return of order and civility to these historic proceedings and offer my most sincere congratulations and prayers to President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance on their election to lead this great Nation.”
Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election win on Monday — a smooth process that looked much different from the chaos four years ago when rioters stormed the US Capitol. Now, Trump and Republicans will move on to how they will govern the country, CNN chief national correspondent John King said.
“Americans, no matter how you voted, we should celebrate that this January 6th looks nothing like the horrendous day four years ago, and now we move on to governing,” King said.
In addition to Trump in the White House, Republicans also control both chambers of Congress — but by very slim margins.
“You have a unified Republican Party. In part because they’re afraid of Trump, in part because many support Trump. The people who didn’t support Trump are mostly gone,” King said.
Trump has already made many promises of what he will do after he is inaugurated on January 20, including closing the US-Mexico border, enacting a slate of tariffs and pardoning people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
In addition to working out how to help Trump enact his agenda, the Senate is also charged with confirming his Cabinet picks.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will also look to make some last decisions in their final weeks in office, King said. Biden is going to try to use the time to shape his legacy and Harris, who presided over the certification of her own loss on Monday, will contemplate her political future, he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are meeting in the Capitol now, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday before the election certification that he spoke this morning with both President-elect Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune as Republican leaders ramp up plans to carry out an ambitious agenda.
Johnson — who returned from a weekend policy session in Baltimore — vowed that Republicans would pass Trump’s policy plans, though he did not voice support for a specific strategy.
While Trump has told Republicans he wants to package all tax, border and energy plans into one bill, Thune has suggested breaking it into two bills.
“Some people like the one-bill strategy, some people like the two-bill strategy. We will work that out. I’m in dialogue this morning with Sen. Thune, and the two houses will get together and we’ll get it done,” Johnson said.
But one of Johnson’s key GOP deputies, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, insisted to CNN that the one-bill approach had already been decided.
“We can do up to three reconciliation bills. But the first one is going to have tax, energy, border, permitting and spending cuts. And that’s been decided,” Smith said.
GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert was seen wearing a Black hat in the House chamber as the results were being counted.
Ahead of the joint session, Boebert posted a video of herself wearing the hat, which reads “Make America Great Again.”
Boebert took her hat off and waved it when the final results were announced.
Vice President Kamala Harris is the person who officially announced her rival in the 2024 election, Donald Trump, won the Electoral College vote.
It is relatively rare that a sitting vice president gets his or her party’s presidential nomination — and that they then lose the election and have to oversee the counting of the electoral votes, certifying their own loss.
Harris endured one of the most humbling experiences in US politics, but also one of the most important functions in the peaceful transfer of power. Three other vice presidents have endured this indignity, all in extremely contentious circumstances. Another vice president skipped the counting.
- In 1861, Vice President John Breckinridge, who lost the 1860 election, oversaw the counting of electoral votes that made Abraham Lincoln president, at a time when Southern states seceded from the country rather than accept Lincoln’s 1860 victory.
- Vice President Richard Nixon narrowly lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy and oversaw the counting of electoral votes in 1961. Nixon would return to victory eight years later.
- Vice President Hubert Humphrey, whom Nixon defeated in 1968, skipped the counting of electoral votes confirming Nixon’s win in 1969 to attend a funeral.
- Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election in 2000 after a controversial Supreme Court decision, and he oversaw the counting of electoral votes in 2001 that made George W. Bush president.
Four years ago, Vice President Mike Pence oversaw the counting of votes that confirmed his loss in a bid for reelection to the vice presidency, which is somewhat different from being on top of the ticket. Pence, however, refused to acquiesce to Trump’s demand that he could reject electoral votes in key states that Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Trump won those states in his 2024 campaign against Harris. Congress clarified after Trump’s pressure on Pence that the vice president’s role in the process is only ceremonial.
The House chamber was cordial and calm as the Electoral College votes were being counted on Monday.
Republicans cheered for states that President-elect Donald Trump won, and Democrats clapped for states that Vice President Kamala Harris won, with lawmakers on both sides rising at times for standing ovations. When the results of Ohio were read, Vice President-elect JD Vance stood and nodded for the state he represented in the Senate.
With the final results announcing Trump’s victory, Republicans stood in a standing ovation. When the total results for Harris were announced, Democrats stood as well.
In a bipartisan moment, the entire chamber stood and clapped when it was announced that the joint session was dissolved.
Many members were on their phones as the results were being certified, and Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California was at times seen reading a newspaper.
Congress has officially certified Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election.
The Electoral College vote count went smoothly and no objections or disturbances occurred — a stark contrast to the scene from four years ago when rioters stormed the Capitol during the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided over the process as president of the Senate, announced the certification of the count. According to the law, that declaration will be considered final or, in legal terms, “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons” elected president and vice president.
Trump and Vance won the election with 312 electoral votes. Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz received 226 electoral votes.
Trump will be sworn in on January 20.
This post has been updated with more details on the election certification.
Donald Trump officially clinched his presidential victory after Congress certified enough electoral votes to put the president-elect over the official threshold.
The certification of Texas’ electoral votes put Trump over the 270 electoral votes he needs to certify his official victory as Congress continues its election certification process.
Vice President-elect JD Vance entered the House chamber alongside his fellow senators for the election certification, stopping to speak with many House Republicans — and several House Democrats — as he made his way to his seat.
Vance shook the hand of GOP Rep. Mike Collins, who just today falsely claimed that the January 6 insurrection was “nonviolent,” and hugged GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
House Democrats and Republicans shook Vice President Kamala Harris’ hand as she approached the dais, and members from both parties mingled with senators as they entered the chamber and moved to their seats. Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson could be seen exchanging small talk before gaveling in.
Former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has not entered the chamber.
Before senators entered, Reps. Bennie Thompson and Jamie Raskin, former members of the January 6th committee, sat together and talked for several minutes.
Former House members who were recently elected to the Senate, including Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Andy Kim, were greeted with hugs and handshakes by their former House colleagues.
Vice President Kamala Harris called to order the joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes from each state and officially certify Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election.
How the process will work: Going in alphabetical order, Harris in her role as president of the Senate will open each state’s certificate of electoral votes and hand them to one of the four “tellers” – a pair of them coming from both the House and Senate. The teller will then read, record, and tally the certificates of electoral votes from each state and the District of Columbia.
This is the point in the process when members can challenge a state’s electoral votes. But for the objection to be heard, it must be submitted in writing and signed by at least one-fifth of the House and one-fifth of the Senate. That’s a higher bar than in past years, when only one member of the House and one Senator could pause the proceedings. The grounds for lodging an objection are also stricter now, because of the 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act.
When the final tallies are in, Harris will announce the certified count. According to the law, that declaration will be considered final or, in legal terms, “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons” elected president and vice president.
Read more about the process here.
CNN’s Gregory Krieg and Ethan Cohen contributed reporting to this post.
