Jan. 6—WASHINGTON — The House and Senate met in a joint session of Congress on Monday and certified the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
The whole thing took barely half an hour. It was extraordinary in its ordinariness, because of what happened exactly four years earlier, when Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol to stop lawmakers from formalizing his loss in the 2020 election.
Not only did the losing candidate this time, outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, not object to the legitimacy of the election, but in her constitutional role as president of the Senate, Harris presided over the certification of her own defeat.
After members of the House and Senate read aloud the number of electoral votes from each state — addressing her as “Madam President,” an honorific she had hoped to hear in a different context — Harris totaled them up.
“Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes,” she said, pausing to let Republicans applaud. “Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes.”
Then, in the antiquated language of the founding era, Harris proclaimed, “This announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States.”
The seemingly banal statement bore additional meaning because, on this day in 2021, the symbolic counting of the electoral votes was not deemed sufficient by Trump and his allies. That included 139 House Republicans and eight GOP senators who voted to overturn the election results after Congress reconvened following the riot that left four protesters dead and at least 140 police officers injured, of whom five later died by suicides and a stroke that may have been connected to the violence.
In the four years since he called the riot “a heinous attack on the United States Capitol,” Trump has attempted to rewrite the history of that day and now promises to pardon some or all of the convicted rioters after his inauguration on Jan. 20. Several Northwest lawmakers marked the anniversary by urging their colleagues and all Americans not to forget what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement that “we must never take for granted” the process of certifying election results.
“We saw four years ago, just how fragile democracy can be,” Murray said. “We saw our nation pushed to the edge of tyranny when a leader who didn’t get his way attacked the very foundations of our democracy by inflaming tensions with falsehoods, and cheering those who would use violence to overthrow the will of the American people.”
With that leader on the verge of moving back into the White House after winning not only the electoral college but — unlike his victory in 2016 — also the popular vote, Democrats are still figuring out how to approach Trump’s second term in office.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Spokane Republican who was sworn in on Friday, said in a brief interview that he was pleased the certification happened “in a peaceful and orderly manner” in light of what happened four years earlier.
“The demeanor of everyone — both from the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats — I thought was a good moment for the country,” Baumgartner said. “And I also appreciated Vice President Harris and her role in the proceedings. I think it was a good reminder of the special republic that we live in and the strength of the institution.”
In a video posted on the social media platform X on Monday morning, Harris called the peaceful transfer of power “one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy.”
“This duty is a sacred obligation — one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people,” she said of her role in the certification.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Seattle Democrat who was in the House gallery as rioters pounded on the doors of the chamber four years earlier, reflected on the violence of that day and criticized Republicans for blocking an effort to put up a plaque to honor the officers injured in clashes with protesters.
“While I intend to do everything possible to continue to protect our democracy and to stand up for vulnerable Americans,” Japayal wrote on X, warning that Trump’s policies could threaten Social Security and Medicare while cutting taxes on billionaires, “I know that the survival of our democracy depends on our willingness to uphold the results of our elections, whether we like them or not.”
Three of the four Republicans who represent Idaho in Congress expressed excitement about the incoming Trump administration in short posts on social media, with Sen. Jim Risch cheering “FOUR MORE YEARS!” and Rep. Mike Simpson, who represents Eastern Idaho and most of Boise, sharing a post by Trump and adding, “It’s time to get our nation back on track.”
Rep. Russ Fulcher, whose district includes North Idaho, posted on X that House Republicans are ready to enact Trump’s policy agenda, which the Idaho lawmaker described in a series of points including “Close the border,” “Reinstate the rule of law” and “Cut spending.”
Although Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress once Trump takes office, the Senate filibuster rule means they will have limited opportunities to pass bills without Democratic support. With a razor-thin margin in the House, Trump’s pledge to cut taxes while protecting costly programs like Social Security and Medicaid may come into conflict with the cost-cutting priorities of the hardline Freedom Caucus, of which Fulcher is a member.
Orion Donovan Smith’s work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.