Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 election in proceedings Monday that unfolded without challenge.
Lawmakers convened under heavy security and a winter snowstorm to meet the date required by law to certify the election.
The whole process this time concluded swiftly and without unrest. One by one, a tally of the electoral votes from each state was read aloud to polite applause in the House, no one objected and the results were certified.
Trump said online Monday that Congress was certifying a “GREAT” election victory and called it “A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY.”
With pomp and tradition, the day unfolded as it has countless times before, with the arrival of ceremonial mahogany boxes filled with the electoral certificates from the states.
Senators walked across the Capitol to the House to begin certifying the vote.
Democrat Kamala Harris certified her own defeat — much the way Democrat Al Gore did in 2001, Republican Richard Nixon did in 1961 and then-Vice President Mike Pence did four years ago.
When Harris read the tally, the chamber broke into applause: first Republicans for Trump’s 312 electoral votes, then Democrats for Harris’ 226.
Vice President-elect JD Vance had joined his former Senate colleagues in the front row, and was surrounded afterward with congratulatory handshakes, hugs and photos.
Within half an hour the process was done.
There are new procedural rules in place after what happened four years ago.
Under changes to the Electoral Count Act, it now requires one-fifth of lawmakers, instead of just one in each chamber, to raise any objections to election results.
But none of that was necessary.
Vice President Kamala Harris shakes hands with House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., after a joint session of Congress confirmed the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
