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Four years after his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 election results, Congress certified Donald Trump’s election as president in a joint session Monday that marked a stark contrast to the violence that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol four years ago on Jan. 6.
The Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, until 2021, had always been a largely ceremonial event to count the Electoral College votes.
Vice President Kamala Harris, standing next to House Speaker Mike Johnson, presided over the counting of the Electoral College votes.
After all 50 states were counted, she declared that Trump had won the election, with a count of 312 electoral votes, to 226 who were pledged to her. The certification also includes Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The process took only about 30 minutes and reflected an event that historically had been carried out without any major issues.
Still, in a sign of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, law enforcement officers were posted all along the perimeter of the Capitol grounds, standing in front of fencing put up as a precaution.
The vote certification at the Capitol took place even though many schools and businesses throughout the Washington area were closed on Monday, due to the snow that fell overnight.
Unlike four years ago, authorities said there was no evidence of any specific threat to disrupt the process. But, due to the insurrection that occurred four years ago, a wide range of precautions had been taken.
Before the certification, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger had said that “the eyes of the world will be on the United States Capitol to see what happens here on January 6th.”
“The United States Capitol Police are better staffed, better trained, better equipped than ever before, to protect our Capitol and to protect our Congress,” Manger said at a recent news conference with other law enforcement officials.
Non-scalable fencing surrounds the Capitol and will remain in place through the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Trump.
That was not the case on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob broke into the U.S. Capitol, leaving at least 140 law enforcement officers injured and leading to several deaths before and after the attack.
A woman was shot and killed near the House chamber, as she tried to climb through a broken window frame while lawmakers fled out of the Speaker’s Lobby.
More than 1,250 people have been convicted of various crimes related to the massive security breach.
This year, 500 members of the D.C. National Guard were on standby, as a security precaution.
Four years ago, it took several hours for National Guard personnel to arrive at the U.S. Capitol.
A congressional investigation indicated then-President Trump watched the violence unfold on television at the White House, as frantic aides urged him to call off his supporters.
Ultimately, he tweeted messages urging them to leave. He released a video, in which he also urged people to go home, and said “We love you.”
Some of the rioters called for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence, for not trying to intervene in the counting of electoral votes.
Peaceful transition expected
This year, Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump, presided over the vote certification process.
In the wake of what happened in 2021, Congress made changes to the Electoral Count Act, clarifying that the vice president has no power to overturn or block the election results.
Trump had asserted the vice president could do so, but Pence told him he didn’t have that power.
Trump dropped Pence from his presidential ticket, replacing him with JD Vance, who is now vice president-elect.
Trump and Vance will be sworn into office on Jan. 20 on the West side of the U.S. Capitol, where much of the violence took place on Jan. 6, 2021.
The president-elect has also said he plans to pardon those convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6, though he hasn’t indicated if that will be a blanket pardon for all of them.
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