US Vice President Kamala Harris led a session to certify her electoral defeat by Donald Trump four years after he tried to stop the same process after his loss to Joe Biden, the Associated Press reported.
Harris's participation was ceremonial and her comments were brief. She handed out copies of the election results and stood quietly as lawmakers read them out loud to the floor.
Harris then declared Trump the winner, and Republicans applauded the next president.
The entire procedure lasted less than half an hour.
In a video message released this morning, Harris called her role a “sacred duty” to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.
She earned a place on the short list of vice presidents who have presided over the ceremonial confirmation of their election defeat, the AP notes. Richard Nixon did so after his loss to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Al Gore is next, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided the outcome of the 2000 election. in favor of George W. Bush.
However, no other vice president has presided over the session to certify his election loss by a future president who had previously refused to acknowledge his own loss.
In addition to spreading lies about election fraud, on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to attack the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the procedure for certifying Joe Biden's victory, the Associated Press notes.
During the election campaign, Harris often mentioned the January 6 attack to warn voters about the danger of returning Trump to the White House. She called him a “petty tyrant“ and “imitating dictators“.
No problems were expected today. Trump transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said there would be a “smooth transition of power.”
“When Kamala Harris certifies the election results, President Trump will fulfill his promise to serve ALL Americans and unite the country through his success,” she said in a statement.
Levitt did not respond to a question about Trump’s attempt to use the certification process to change the results of the election four years ago, the AP notes. At the time, Trump asked his Vice President Mike Pence to disallow votes from contested states based on false allegations of fraud.