The transfer of power to Donald Trump is shaping up to be, well, peaceful.
No mobs are assembling to disrupt Congress’ Jan. 6 counting of electoral votes.
Speaker Mike Johnson and top lieutenants lashed out when Biden awarded the panel’s leaders — Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)
Trump, too, used the occasion to attack Cheney, a longtime political nemesis, and float her potential prosecution.
And they’re here because they want to be, and if you ask most of them they were here because of Jan. 6.
It appears that the handover of power to Donald Trump will be, well, peaceful.
There are no crowds gathering to obstruct Congress’ Jan. Six electoral votes are counted. Neither are any Democratic leaders contesting the election’s outcome or developing complex legal theories to do so. The biggest risk of obstruction appears to be from a storm system that could cover the area with a few inches of snow over night.
In a ceremony presided over by his defeated opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who will serve as Senate president, Trump’s victory will be certified by late Monday afternoon if everything goes according to plan. Harris has stated unequivocally that she will carry out a simple handover of power. By doing this, she will be continuing the tradition of all previous vice presidents, including Mike Pence, who defied Trump’s insistence that electors from states he lost in 2020 not be counted.
Although members have the option to object to any electors for possible constitutional or legal flaws, few Democrats have indicated that they will make such an attempt. Representative. Raskin, Jamie (D-Md. ), who objected to Trump’s electors in 2017 as a token gesture, stated that he would not do so this time and that Democrats would place a higher priority on “standing by the constitutional order.”. “.”.
In addition, Monday’s joint session is the first to be governed by a 2022 law intended to limit lawmakers’ ability to contest the outcomes and stop attempts to taint the transfer of power. The already remote possibility of any objections impeding the proceedings is reduced by that law.
However, the general calm in Washington conceals a long-simmering tension between those who witnessed the democratic institutions of the country crumble under Jan. 6, 2021, and those hoping to whitewash it — particularly as Trump seeks to change the Capitol attack’s history and gets ready to pardon a number of its offenders. More than 1,200 people have entered guilty pleas or been found guilty of the attack, and the Justice Department has charged over 1,500 others with involvement.
Despite growing pressure to halt cases pending Trump’s clemency rulings, judges in the federal district court in Washington are embracing their work and bringing more cases to trial and sentencing in honor of the attack’s fourth anniversary.
U. S. . One vocal supporter of the court’s work on Jan. is District Judge Royce Lamberth. One well-known defendant’s sentencing in six cases has been scheduled to take place during the joint session of Congress. The U. S. . District Judge Tanya Chutkan is holding a hearing in anticipation of a January trial. Chutkan was previously scheduled to oversee Trump’s criminal trial for charges pertaining to his attempt to sabotage the 2020 election. Trial number six is next week. And you. S. In a lawsuit against Trump for his part in inciting the violence four years ago, members of Congress and Capitol Police officers have scheduled a hearing before District Judge Amit Mehta.
There are supporters of Jan all over the city. In order to pressure Trump into granting broad pardons, including those for the most severe crimes against police, six defendants are organizing a press conference. Trump’s connection between the defendants’ struggle against the legal system and his own is a flex of the improbable political power they have amassed over the past four years.
For Ashli Babbitt, the Jan, others are organizing a stroll. 6 rioter who tried to break into a room next to the House chamber but was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer.
House leaders have spent recent days promising to look into the Jan attack, and Republican leaders in Congress have no plans to commemorate the anniversary. Two years ago, a six-member select committee looked into Trump’s involvement in the attack. Speaker Mike Johnson and senior lieutenants reacted angrily when Biden recognized the panel’s facilitators, Rep. Miss Bennie Thompson, a D. — with esteemed Presidential Citizens medals — and former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney. Trump also took advantage of the opportunity to disparage Cheney, a longtime political foe, and imply that she might face charges.
The D.C Capitol Police are in the middle of it all. The Capitol will be guarded by police and Secret Service personnel on Monday and at Trump’s inauguration two weeks later. Four years prior, hundreds of them were at the Capitol, fearing that night they would not be allowed to return home as they faced the crowd.
Numerous people have provided testimony during the Jan’s trials. Six defendants who had previously opposed them testified about the chaos and fear they had gone through, and frequently still endure.
Thomas Manger, the chief of Capitol Police, asked the officers if they were confident today during a press conference on Friday. At seven this morning, I was speaking with officers at a roll call. I requested a hand signal. About half of them raised their hands when asked how many of them had been here four years prior. Knowing exactly what they were getting into, the other half arrived here. And the majority of them would say that Jan is the reason they are here, as they want to be. 6. These officers wish to be at the forefront of the action taking place here. “”.
