It was routine — and that was the purpose.
Congress licensed President-elect Trump’s election victory in a easy and comparatively transient ceremony Monday.
The normalcy of the event was a juxtapositional reminder of the occasions of 4 years earlier than, when a mob laid siege to the Capitol, coming ominously near maintaining Trump in energy following an election he misplaced.
This time round, it was Trump’s opponent, Vice President Harris, who oversaw proceedings in her position as president of the Senate.
This led to some curious moments. Harris was at instances addressed as “Madam President” — a recognition of her Senate position but a reminder of the presidential title she had hoped to take pleasure in.
When the electoral votes had been duly tallied, it fell to Harris to announce the consequence. She needed to look ahead to GOP cheers to subside after she introduced Trump’s whole — as anticipated, he obtained 312 votes — earlier than saying, within the third particular person, the 226 votes acquired by “Kamala D. Harris.”
Democrats cheered for what might need been at that time. However there have been no objections raised by Democrats to any a part of the proceedings.
This yr, and into the long run, any celebration that needs to protest the outcomes from any state should clear a better bar than was the case for Trump’s supporters 4 years in the past. The Electoral Rely Reform and Presidential Transition Enchancment Act was handed in 2022, largely in response to the occasions of Jan. 6, 2021.
In a video launched Monday morning, she emphasised that “the peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy.” It was, she added, a key marker that “distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”
She reiterated that time briefly remarks to reporters after the ceremony, saying that it “was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted.”
“Today, America’s democracy stood,” Harris concluded.
For all of the superb phrases, although, it must be galling for Harris that the person she considers to have endangered American democracy has been reelected. Trump carried out higher final November than in both of his earlier two elections. He prevailed over Harris within the well-liked vote, a feat he had failed to drag off towards both Hillary Clinton in 2016 or President Biden in 2020.
His most up-to-date victory was explainable, to some extent, by commonplace political components. Harris was weighed down by the identical millstones that had hung round Biden’s neck up till his withdrawal from the race, notably voter issues over immigration, inflation and the economic system.
However Trump was additionally rendered electable partly as a result of, for some voters, he had succeeded in recasting the occasions of Jan. 6, 2021, in a complete completely different mild.
The president-elect speaks of the protesters now as patriots. He has promised pardons for a lot of of them as soon as he takes energy on Jan. 20. And he has blasted the efforts to carry him legally accountable for his actions in and round that day as a nefarious political plot.
On social media on Monday, Trump prevented any point out of the occasions of 4 years in the past, nevertheless.
“CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY. MAGA!” he wrote.
However as Trump prepares to take energy once more, the query of how Jan. 6, 2021, will come to be seen with the passage of time is sharp.
On Monday morning, the Division of Justice provided the most recent figures on prosecutions associated to the occasions of 4 years in the past.
It famous that nearly 1,600 defendants had been charged in federal circumstances, of whom greater than 1,000 have pleaded responsible and greater than 200 have been convicted in contested trials.
Within the political sphere, Biden wrote an op-ed that appeared Sunday in The Washington Publish, asserting that Individuals “should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault [in 2021]. And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year. But we should not forget.”
The identical day, chatting with reporters, Biden stated of Trump, “I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy. I’m hopeful that we are beyond that.”
However an outdated saying holds that historical past is written by the victors.
Trump’s victory in November is proof that the plurality of voters didn’t see his position within the occasions of 4 years in the past as disqualifying.
Now, he’ll quickly take energy once more — and the relative tranquility of Monday’s certification of his victory will virtually actually give technique to new volatility.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
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