Kamala Harris’s worst drink: Certifying Trump’s victory… on January 6 | usa elections

To proceed with the certification of the new President, the fifteenth section of the third chapter of the First Book of the United States Code establishes: “The Congress shall meet on the sixth day of the month of January, after the meeting of the electors. The Senate and the House of Representatives shall do so at one o’clock in the afternoon on that day in the House of Representatives Hall, and the President of the Senate shall be the presiding officer. These electors are representatives from each state who are in charge of testifying that Republican nominee Donald Trump won the White House this week, four years after he incited thousands of his supporters to storm the Capitol during the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Won the second ticket for the house easily. The President of the Senate is, by law, the Vice President: in this case, the Vice President.

So on January 6, the fourth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol, a bitter pill awaits Kamala Harris: certifying her opponent’s victory in the election. It’s not often that a Vice President running for office has to attend his own political funeral while overseeing the enthronement of his opponent. This happened to Bill Clinton’s deputy, Al Gore, when he lost to George Bush Jr. in 2000 after a painful recount. and Richard Nixon after losing to John F. Kennedy in 1961. Nixon at least had the consolation of being the hero of his own story on January 6, 1969, the day Hubert Humphrey (another vice president, like Harris, had to launch a running campaign following the resignation of boss Lyndon Johnson). Humphrey chose to skip that day in Congress.

In none of these cases was the winner a former President. And certainly none of them saw how his victory was certified on the fourth anniversary of the day when he refused to accept his defeat for several weeks – a defeat that was acknowledged by dozens of judges, Wherever this was challenged, he called a rally in Washington at the end of which thousands of his supporters marched from south of the White House to the Capitol, which they violently attacked. On January 6, 2021, at least 140 officers were injured and one police officer and three attackers died, while President Trump was still in the White House following him on television doing nothing.

Not only that: Harris, then a senator from California and vice president-elect, was at a Senate Intelligence Committee panel meeting at the Capitol in the morning, and then she left. On the occasion of the first anniversary, he recalled that dark day for American democracy in a speech: “Immediately, I thought not only of my colleagues, but also of our staff who had to take refuge in our office. And the filing cabinets were barricaded. (…) On January 6, we all saw what our country would look like if the forces trying to destroy it won. And Anarchy.”

“Let’s hang Mike Pence!”

The most symbolic rally of his campaign, attended by about 75,000 people, was held by the Democratic nominee at the same place from where Trump told his people: “(We) fought. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore.” Also: “I know everyone here will soon march to the Capitol and peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard.” The purpose of the mob was to stop the certification of Biden as president and had one clear objective: Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump had pressured for several days and pressed again that day: “I hope you respect our Constitution. will stand for good and For the betterment of our country. And if you don’t, I’m going to be very disappointed in you,” he told her from the stage. He wanted to stop the counting of his opponent’s electoral votes. According to the law, there was nothing in his power to stop his loyalists from marching along Pennsylvania Avenue, which leads from the White House to Congress, shouting: “Let’s hang Mike Pence!”

Those events were the subject of an investigation by a bipartisan commission of the House of Representatives (seven Democrats and two Republicans), which conducted more than 1,000 interviews over 18 months, reviewed one million documents and called nearly 100 witnesses. This work resulted in a massive report, which concluded: “The ultimate cause of January 6 was a single individual, former President Trump, who was followed by many others. “Whatever happened that day wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t.”

As part of the peaceful transition of power that both Harris, Biden and other key Democratic leaders have promised to facilitate between now and the inauguration of the new president — which the U.S. Code sets for January 20, “except That it falls on a Sunday” – on the 6th will be the time to certify the 312 electoral votes for the candidate whose disqualification they overwhelmingly voted for in their second vote in February 2021. Impeachment (Political trial). Among them is Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, who in recent days referred to Trump as a “major insurrectionist.” Many of these politicians also defended the legal theory, eventually unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court, that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution contained a clause that disqualified Trump from running again for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Did it.

Another lawmaker who will be paying attention on January 6, 2025 is Mitch McConnell, the head of the Republican minority in the Senate. Months ago he announced he would step down as party leader when new members of the upper house are sworn in in January, although he will remain a senator until 2027. After the Trumpist attack, McConnell declared: “We all saw it coming, this was a violent insurrection.” He also said, and he was egged on by “Trump and others in power” who “filled the public with lies (about election fraud) that they decided to vote against it, despite everything.” Impeachment.

The publication of AP journalist Michael Tackett’s book in the final weeks of the campaign revealed what McConnell really thought of the President-elect in those days: someone “stupid and angry,” a “disgusting human being” and a “narcissist.” , After learning of Trump’s new victory, the senator in another of his intellectual speeches defined the news as “certainly a happy day for the Republican Party.”