Vice President Kamala Harris fulfilled her constitutional duty to certify the electoral votes of the 2024 presidential election, a unique and humiliating finale to her truncated bid for the White House.
Harris took her place next to Republican Chairman Mike Johnson during a joint session of Congress with both the Senate and House of Representatives.
She was forced to listen as the state-by-state election results were read out.
The moment must have been humiliating for Harris, who repeatedly called the president-elect a threat to democracy, a fascist, “petty tyrant” and an aspiring dictator.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, a current senator from Ohio, sat in the front row and watched expressionlessly, clapping softly — sometimes unenthusiastically — as the states he and Donald Trump won were read out.
Methodically, after the votes from each of the states and U.S. territories were counted and certified, Harris declared Trump and Vance the victors.
“Donald J. Trump from the state of Florida received 312 votes,” Harris said.
“This announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate will be considered a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States,” she continued.
Her statement that Trump will be the 47th president in a room full of mostly Republicans was met with roars of approval and a standing ovation — a scene that would have been unthinkable four years earlier after many Republican lawmakers in the room condemned the president-elect.
“Kamala Harris from the state of California received 226 votes,” she continued, this time the Democrats stood up to cheer her on.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson preside over a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate met for a joint session to confirm Trump’s victory
Exactly four years after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election loss, Harris and lawmakers are meeting today to certify his 2024 presidential victory, cementing the Republican’s comeback from political disgrace.
On a quiet, snowy day, four years after the sacking of the Capitol by a mob of crazed activists on January 6, 2021, Trump, after spending some time in the political wilderness, was once again declared the winner of the presidential contest.
The joint session had many colorful moments as lawmakers reconvened for the second day of the 119th Congress.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 84, hobbled into the chamber on a walker after suffering a broken hip after falling down a marble staircase during a trip to Europe just before Christmas.
Pelosi had managed to return from across the pond last week to vote in the House of Representatives’ controversial speaker vote. She had undergone hip replacement surgery abroad, but the walker with the usual tennis balls was a newly unveiled accessory.
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was also injured in a fall last month, was seen wearing a blue medical face mask during the joint session.
Meanwhile, social media users criticized the VP for the horrific moment.
Huge standing ovation as Kamala Harris announces how badly she was beaten in the election,” said Jordan Conradson of Gateway Pundit. ‘How embarrassing.’
Another Congress…’
Harris’ chairmanship of the joint session adds her to a unique club of VPs who have had to shamefully declare victory for the man they were running against.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, arrives before a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election using a walker
President-elect Donald Trump is pictured at an election night watch party, Wednesday, November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida
Under the Constitution, the vice president, as leader of the Senate, is charged with the process of declaring the results of the election in the White House.
Harris now follows in the footsteps of Al Gore, Bill Clinton’s vice president, who was forced to concede defeat to Republican George W. Bush in 2001 after weeks of legal wrangling over hanging chads and narrow margins in Florida.
Before him, Richard Nixon (then vice president to Dwight D. Eisenhower) had to sign the results of his loss to John F. Kennedy after the 1960 election.
The moment for Harris, however bittersweet, must have been a lot more boring than her experience during the last election declaration, when she was a senator from California.
Four years ago, as then-Vice President Mike Pence and Congress prepared to certify President Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump, the infamous January 6 riot broke out.
As thousands stormed the Capitol grounds, some fought with law enforcement while others broke windows to enter the House floor and stop Biden’s election certification.
The plan worked for a while, but Pence and Congress returned after the riotous crowd drove out the politicians.
At around 3:30 am on January 7, Biden’s victory was confirmed.
Harris shakes hands with Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett as he walks into the House chamber Monday afternoon
This time the certification was much more mundane.
Earlier in the day, Harris confirmed that she would indeed certify the election results that were not in her favor.
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris said in a video on her X account.
“Like any other principle, this is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy and tyranny,” she said.
The VP also alluded to the January 6 attack four years later.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” she noted.
“And it will then be up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles and ensure that our government in America always remains of the people, by the people and for the people.”