VOA News | Tuesday, January 7, 2025 
US Congress certifies Trump’s election win ahead of his inauguration

The U.S. Congress certified Monday that Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election, setting the stage for his inauguration in two weeks to a second nonconsecutive four-year term in the White House. Under U.S. law, sitting vice presidents preside over the Electoral College count of the election results from each of the country’s 50 states, leaving Harris in the position of certifying her own loss. Four years after Trump tried to upend his 2020 reelection loss to Joe Biden and Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to block the certification of Biden’s victory, Monday’s ratification of the vote was ceremonial, not calamitous. Harris ahead of time described her role in a video message as a “sacred obligation” to ensure the peaceful transfer of power. “As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” she said. “And it is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.” She passed the documents certifying the vote in each of the states to four lawmakers who read the long-known results, with Trump winning the Electoral College vote, 312-226. Harris, the Democratic candidate, conceded the election after the outcome of the Nov. 5 vote became clear, with Trump, the Republican nominee, winning all seven highly contested political battleground states that were decisive in the election. Harris joined a short list of other vice presidents to oversee the…Read more