Live updates as Congress counts electoral votes right now to finalize Trump’s victory

Officials have beefed up safety across the Capitol as Congress prepares to depend the Electoral College votes Monday, amid numerous high-profile occasions on Capitol Hill this month. 

Law enforcement companies are coordinating on numerous heightened safety measures. Temporary fences have been erected across the perimeter of the Capitol, extra safety checks are in impact for workers and media, and personnel from a number of legislation enforcement companies and jurisdictions are current on the Capitol forward of the certification Monday. 

The measures come because the Department of Homeland Security designated the Jan. 6 counting of electoral votes a “nationwide particular safety occasion” earlier this yr, offering for a higher degree of coordination amongst federal companies.

Former President Jimmy Carter will even lie in state on the Capitol starting on Tuesday, and the inauguration is ready for later this month.

On Monday, lawmakers will finalize the outcomes of the 2024 election. It was on this present day 4 years in the past that now President-elect Donald Trump delivered a speech denying his 2020 defeat, which was adopted by an assault on the U.S. Capitol. Trump has pledged pardons for the rioters however has not specified if it will be all or simply some. CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane has extra:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled the assault on the Capitol in a statement Monday, saying “our nation watched in horror as a terrorist mob stormed the Capitol grounds and desecrated our Temple of Democracy in a violent try and subvert the peaceable switch of energy” 4 years in the past. 

“The January sixth rebellion shook our Republic to its core — and left behind bodily scars and emotional trauma on members of our Congressional group and our Country that endure to this present day,” Pelosi stated.

Pelosi was speaker on the time and was focused by among the rioters who looked for her within the Capitol on Jan. 6. In an appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Pelosi stated that the violence “did not finish that day,” accusing Trump of stoking continued violence and connecting it to an assault on her husband in 2022. 

In the assertion Monday, Pelosi urged Americans to not overlook the “extraordinary braveness of legislation enforcement officers,” who she stated “stood within the breach and stared down the insurrectionists to guard the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution.”

The former speaker stated Jan. 6 is a reminder “that our treasured democratic establishments are solely as robust because the braveness and dedication of these entrusted with their care,” hailing how Congress returned to the Capitol to preside over the certification of the election outcomes after the assault in 2021. 

“As we collect right now below President Lincoln’s dome to uphold our oath and peacefully certify the desire of the folks, all of us share a duty to protect American democracy — which Lincoln referred to as, ‘the final finest hope of earth,'” she stated.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent within the 2024 election, pledged in a social media submit Monday morning to “carry out my constitutional responsibility as vp of the United States to certify the outcomes of the 2024 election,” calling it a “sacred obligation.”

“The peaceable switch of energy is among the most basic ideas of American democracy,” Harris stated within the minute-long video. “As a lot as every other precept, it’s what distinguishes our system of presidency from monarchy or tyranny. 

Four years in the past, former Vice President Mike Pence presided over the certification of the election outcomes amid a stress marketing campaign from Trump allies to reject the outcomes. During the method, the vp reads aloud the electoral votes, earlier than lawmakers depend every state’s outcomes to affirm the president-elect’s victory. A 2022 law additional outlined the vp’s function as ceremonial. 

Harris concluded within the video that “as we’ve got seen, our democracy will be fragile,” including that it is as much as “every certainly one of us to face up for our most cherished ideas.”

“And to be sure that in America, our authorities all the time stays of the folks, by the folks and for the folks,” the vp stated. 

In an op-ed for the Washington Post printed Sunday night, President Biden accused Trump and his allies of making an attempt to rewrite historical past in relation to the assault on the Capitol. 

“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the historical past of that day. To inform us that we did not see what all of us noticed with our personal eyes. To dismiss issues about it as some form of partisan obsession. To clarify it away as a protest that simply bought out of hand,” Mr. Biden wrote. “This is just not what occurred.”

The president continued: “In time, there will likely be Americans who did not witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand however will study it from footage and testimony of that day, from what’s written in historical past books and from the reality we cross on to our youngsters. We can’t permit the reality to be misplaced.”

He vowed to “do every thing I can to respect the peaceable switch of energy and restore the traditions that we’ve got lengthy revered in America,” together with by inviting Trump to the White House on Jan. 20 and attending his inauguration.

“But on this present day, we can’t overlook. This is what we owe those that based this nation, who’ve fought for it and who’ve died for it,” Mr. Biden wrote.

The violent assault on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted the joint session 4 years in the past will likely be looming over the proceedings when Congress convenes on Monday.

But in contrast to on Jan. 6, 2021, when then-Vice President Mike Pence confronted stress to unilaterally toss out electoral votes from battleground states, Monday’s joint session will likely be ruled by a revised set of procedures that make clear the vp’s function to stop makes an attempt to overturn the outcomes of an election.

“The 2020 election uncovered how ambiguities within the Electoral Count Act might be exploited to sow chaos and disrupt the peaceable switch of presidential energy,” stated Holly Idelson, a coverage strategist at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group. “The bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 will assist guarantee future transitions proceed easily and honor the desire of the voters.”

Read extra about how this Jan. 6 will likely be totally different here.

While Congress meets Monday to count the Electoral College votes and affirm Trump’s victory within the 2024 election, the roughly 1,500 folks accused of storming the Capitol 4 years in the past will likely be targeted on what occurs subsequent. 

Charged as a part of the most important Justice Department’s investigation in historical past, they’ve been ready to see if Trump fulfills his promise to pardon them or commute their sentences.

Prosecutors have charged greater than 1,580 defendants with crimes tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, together with greater than 170 who’re accused of utilizing lethal or harmful weapons like fireplace extinguishers and bear spray towards officers. While a majority had been charged with nonviolent misdemeanor crimes, some had been accused of conspiring to make use of power to withstand the peaceable switch of energy. Others admitted to combating officers and attacking members of the media. 

But with Trump’s pledge to pardon a minimum of some defendants and shut down the investigation, a lot of those that breached the Capitol 4 years in the past might see their convictions erased and data cleaned.

Read extra here.

Senators and members of the House will meet in a joint session at 1 p.m. to tally the electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Vice President Kamala Harris will preside in her function as president of the Senate.

The vp will learn aloud the electoral votes, after which Congress counts every state’s outcomes to affirm Trump’s victory. Trump gained 312 Electoral College votes, far surpassing the 270 wanted for victory. Harris gained 226 votes.

The course of is usually a ceremonial step earlier than a president is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Read extra in regards to the course of here.