Harris to certify Trump’s victory in the US election, four years after the Capitol riot

US Vice President Kamala Harris will preside over Monday’s congressional certification of the results of November’s presidential election, a race she lost to Donald Trump.

The date also marks the fourth anniversary of the riot at the US Capitol, when Trump supporters tried to thwart the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Usually the occasion is a mere formality.

Security has been heightened in Washington, and Biden has vowed that there will be no repeat of the violence of January 6, 2021, which resulted in several deaths.

As lawmakers meet in Washington, heavy snow forecast for the US capital could prove devastating.

House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to proceed with certification at 1:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. GMT) despite the bad weather, telling Fox News: “Whether we’re in a blizzard or not, we’re going to be in that chamber getting assure that this has been done.”

As the current vice president, Harris is required by the U.S. Constitution to preside over the official certification of the result after Trump defeated her in the Nov. 5 national vote.

Trump won all seven of the nation’s swing states, helping him win the Electoral College, the mechanism that decides who takes over the presidency. It will be Harris’ job on Monday to read the number of Electoral College votes won by each candidate.

Trump’s second term will begin after his inauguration on January 20. For the first time since 2017. the president’s party will also enjoy majorities in both houses of Congress, albeit slim ones.

Trump’s victory marks a stunning political comeback since his 2020 election defeat. and a criminal conviction in 2024. – a first for a current or former US president.

Amid a dramatic recent presidential campaign, Trump also survived a bullet that grazed his ear when a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania.

While away from the White House, he has faced multiple lawsuits against him — including his attempts to overturn the 2020 outcome, which he continues to dispute.

After his defeat that year, Trump and his allies made baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud — claiming the election had been stolen from them.

In a speech in Washington on the day of the certification, Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told the crowd to “fight like hell” but also asked them to “peacefully” make their voices heard.

He also tried to pressure his own Vice President, Mike Pence, to reject the election result, a call that Pence rejected.

The rioters continued to break down barricades and ransack the Capitol building before Trump eventually intervened, telling them to go home. Several deaths were blamed on the violence.

Trump’s promises since returning to office include pardoning people convicted of crimes related to the attack. He says many of them are “wrongfully imprisoned”, although he admits “a few of them are probably out of control”.

Conversely, Biden urged Americans to never forget what happened.

“We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it,” Biden wrote in the Washington Post over the weekend.

For Trump’s Republican Party, new Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled a willingness to move on, telling the BBC’s US partner CBS News: “You can’t look in the rear-view mirror.”