WASHINGTON — As Congress convenes amid a winter storm make sure President-elect Donald Trump the election of heritage of January 6 The procedure ends with an unusual event: the candidate who tried to overturn the previous election won this time, and is legally returning to power.
Lawmakers will meet at noon Monday under the tightest possible national security measures. Layers of tall black fences flank the US Capitol complex in a stark reminder which happened four years agowhen a defeated Trump sent his mob there “fight in hell” when he became the most horrific attack In 200 years at the seat of American democracy.
No violence, protests or procedural objections They are expected at the Congress this time. Republicans at the highest levels of power challenged him 2020 election results When Trump lost to the president Joe Biden be no qualms after this year he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris.
And Democrats frustrated by Trump 312-226 Electoral College victory, however, accepted the choice of American voters. Also the threat of a huge snowfall The move against the region was not expected to be an obstacle on January 6, the day established by law to verify the vote.
“Whether we’re in a snowball or not, we’ll be in that chamber making sure this gets done,” the Speaker of the Chamber. Mike Johnsona republican who He helped direct Trump’s efforts To cancel the 2020 election, he said on Fox News on Sunday.
The return to a US tradition of initiating a peaceful transfer of presidential power comes with an asterisk as Trump prepares to take office in two weeks with a resurgent sense of authority. He denies that he lost four years ago, reflects on being out of the Constitution’s two-term White House limit, and He promises forgiveness some More than 1,250 people Those who have pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes for the siege of the Capitol.
What is unclear is whether January 6, 2021 was an anomaly, a year in which Americans violently attacked their government, or whether this year’s expected calm turns out to be remarkable. The US is struggling to come to grips with its political and cultural differences at one time democracy is threatened all over the world. Trump calls January 6, 2021 “the day of love.”
“We shouldn’t be lulled into complacency,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of the interdisciplinary nonprofit Protect Democracy.
He and others have warned that it is historically unprecedented for US voters to do what they did in November to re-elect Trump after publicly refusing to walk away last time. A bold leader who has shown an unwillingness to give up a return to power “is an unprecedentedly dangerous move for a free country to take voluntarily,” Bassin said.
Biden, speaking at White House events on Sunday, called January 6, 2021 “one of the hardest days in American history.”
“We need to get back to the basic transfer of power,” Biden said. What Trump did last time, Biden said, “was a real threat to democracy. I hope we’re beyond that now.”
However, American democracy has proven to be resilient, and Congress, the branch of government closest to the people, will come together to affirm the American people’s choice.
With pomp and tradition, the day is expected to unfold as it has many times before, with the arrival of ceremonial mahogany boxes filled with states’ election certificates — boxes that workers frantically grabbed and protected when Trump’s mob last stormed the building. .
Senators will walk through the Capitol — which four years ago was riddled with roving riots, with some calling for their heads and threats, others fighting hand-to-hand with police — to the House to begin securing the vote.
Harris will preside over the count, as the vice president is required to do, and ensure his defeat—just as Democrat Al Gore did in 2001 and Republican Richard Nixon did in 1961.
Then-The speaker will be in the doorway Nancy Pelosi he was suddenly brought to safety the last time, when the mob closed in and the lawmakers put on gas masks and fled, and gunshots rang out when he was killed by the police. Ashley BabbittA Trump supporter trying to climb into the chamber through a broken glass door.
There are new procedural rules After what happened four years ago, when Republicans who were lying to Trump that the election was rigged challenged the results certified by their states.
Under changes Election Counting Actnow a fifth of the parliamentarians, instead of only one in each chamber, demands that no objection be made to the results of the elections. With security as tight as for the Super Bowl or the Olympics, law enforcement is on high alert for intruders. No tourists will be allowed.
But none of this will be necessary.
Republicans, who met with Trump behind closed doors To work in the White House before January 6, 2021 a complex plan to question his electoral defeat, they have accepted his victory this time.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who led the challenge on the House floor in 2021, said people at the time were very surprised by the election results and there were “a lot of complaints and allegations.”
This time, he said, “I think the win was so decisive … It drowned out most of that.”
Democrats who have raised symbolic objections in the past, including in the disputed 2000 election in which Gore lost to George W. Bush and was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, have no plans to oppose it. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Democratic Party is not “infested” with election denial.
“There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle,” Jeffries said on the first day of the new Congress to applause from House Democrats.
“You see, you have to love America when you win and when you lose. That’s the patriotic thing to do,” Jeffries said.
Last time, far-right militias helped the mob enter the Capitol in a war zone-like scene. Officers described Trump being beaten with flag sticks, pepper-sprayed and beaten, ” slipping into the blood of others“.
the leaders of Oath keepers and Proud Boys they have been judged seditious conspiracy and sentenced to long prison terms. Many others faced prison terms, probation, house arrest, or other punishments.
The Republicans who engineered the legal challenges to Trump’s defeat continue to support their actions, celebrated in Trump circles, despite the severe costs to their personal and professional lifestyles.
Including several disbarred lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastmanand impeach-but-forgive Michael Flynn He met at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend to deliver a film about the 2020 election.
Trump was impeached by the House on charges of inciting a riot that day, but acquitted by the Senate. At the time, GOP leader Mitch McConnell blamed Trump for the siege, but said his fault was for the courts to decide.
Federal prosecutors then a four-count indictment Trump’s work to nullify the election, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, but special counsel Jack Smith had to dismiss the case when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a president. broad immunity for actions taken in office.
Smith withdrew the case last month after Trump won re-election, upholding Justice Department guidelines that presidents cannot be prosecuted.
Biden, in one of his actions, gave the award Presidential Citizen Medal Rep. Bennie Thompson and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who served as chair and vice chair of the congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, incident.
Trump said it should be those who worked on the January 6 committee locked up.
___
Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.
