Democrats did not file any objections for the first time in decades
The US Congress has certified president-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect J.D. Vance as the winners of the 2024 election, with no Democrats objecting to the Republican victory for the first time since 1988.
The Trump-Vance ticket won 312 Electoral College votes, the popular vote, and all seven swing states, triumphing over Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. Harris got to certify her own defeat on Monday, chairing the joint session of Congress as part of her ceremonial duty as president of the Senate.
“Today was obviously a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power,” Harris told reporters at the Capitol afterward.
Multiple Democrats argued that their willingness to cede power stood in sharp contrast with four years ago, when a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 vote. Federal prosecutors have imprisoned more than 1,500 people in relation to the incident that Democrats labeled a “violet insurrection.”
“Congress certifies our great election victory today – a big moment in history,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform earlier in the day, followed by his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again (MAGA).”
Monday’s joint session of Congress took place amid a massive winter storm, which dropped about six inches of snow on Washington. The Capitol was fenced off with security barriers and surrounded by a heavy police presence.
Trump has never admitted that he lost the 2020 election, claiming that a number of irregularities and dirty tricks delivered the presidency to Joe Biden. The 2021 Capitol breach happened just as a group of Republicans were lodging a formal objection to an unofficial tally. When the rattled lawmakers reconvened later in the day, the Republicans withdrew all of their objections.
A month after the Capitol riot, Time magazine published a story of a “shadow campaign” that “fortified” the 2020 election for the Democrats.
Biden originally planned to run for re-election, but was pressured to drop out by his own party in mid-July, following a disastrous televised debate and a failed assassination attempt on Trump. He endorsed Harris for the nomination. She went on to amass a $1.5 billion war chest and attract endorsements from many celebrities and most of the media, but came up short at the polls.