Congress certifies Donald Trump's election as Washington remembers January 6 insurrection

The 2021 election certification of President Joe Biden was overshadowed by the pro-Trump riot at the US Capitol

House Republicans applaud the election of Donald Trump as his election victory was certified on Monday. AP

The US Congress on Monday certified the election of Donald Trump and his vice president JD Vance, a procedural step ensuring his return to the White House on a day that has come to symbolise harsh political divides in the US.

The US Constitution requires that on January 6 after a national election, Congress should certify the victory of the next president.

Mr Trump celebrated the milestone on his TruthSocial platform, calling it “a big moment in history.”

Mr Vance, still a Republican senator, sat in the first row listening to the Congress certify his vice presidency. Republican elation was palpable in the chamber, as the party rallied to bring it one step closer to their “trifecta” control in the new government.

Republicans clapped and cheered as Mr Trump's winning results were tabulated state by state, with the Democratic half of the chamber sitting solemnly. Both parties gave a standing ovation after departing Vice President Kamala Harris declared the final results.

Senate majority leader John Thune, new at the helm after Republicans regained control of the upper chamber, said “the Republican coalition is broad, and strong, and growing,” in a speech before the certification, promising swift Congressional approval of the Trump cabinet.

This year's certification stood in sharp contrast to that of President Joe Biden in 2021, when a deadly pro-Trump insurrection tried to stop the process and overthrow the 2020 election results.

Mr Biden published an opinion piece in The Washington Post marking the day, saying: “After what we all witnessed on January 6, 2021, we know we can never again take it for granted.

“And we should commit to remembering … it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. To remember that democracy – even in America – is never guaranteed."

After thousands of pro-Trump loyalists thronged the Capitol on January 6, 2021, only one or two demonstrators showed up on Monday. Democrats have made it a point to distinguish themselves from the Republican election denialism of 2020, led by Mr Trump, that incited the insurrection at the Capitol.

After losing his 2020 re-election bid to Mr Biden, Mr Trump led a campaign of voter fraud conspiracy theories denying the results, and pressured local election officials in crucial states not to certify their vote tallies.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said in a post on X that Americans should not “take for granted how quiet the Capitol will be today … Had Harris won, today likely would have been another bloodbath".

Sebastian Gorka, Mr Trump's incoming counter-terrorism chief, meanwhile said he was spending the day “thinking about Ashli Babbitt", the pro-Trump rioter who was shot and killed by a police officer after breaching the Capitol.

Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick issued a rare statement from his party commemorating the Capitol officers' “remarkable courage and sacrifice” during the 2021 attack.

“Their courage in the face of danger upheld the ideals of our nation and reminded us of the profound cost of defending freedom,” Mr Fitzpatrick wrote in a post on X.

But this year's certification came with its own hurdles – including a winter snowstorm. Large parts of the US are under severe winter conditions, and about 30cm of snow fell in Washington, leading to federal employees working from home. The Congress does not follow the same federal closing guidelines, nor does the Constitution give them discretion to reschedule the January 6 timeline.

Washington Police Chief J Thomas Manger warned that US elected officials “have faced a heightened threat environment” after 2021.

Mr Manger said the police department had spent the past four years focused on improving its “operational planning, intelligence, equipment, and training” for election certification day.

Graciela, a Peruvian-American, was working the front desk at a Washington hotel when the Capitol insurrection unfolded in 2021, and remembers “being worried about getting home safely”. But she was more worried about her mother, who was also working in the area at the time and “still has an accent”, she told The National.

“The fear of her being victim of a hate crime was the most present it had been since Trump won in 2016,” said Graciela.

Anti-immigrant sentiment has been a staple of Mr Trump's political career, and in his second term he has promised to enact a policy of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants on day one.

Graciela has since moved to the UK and says she sees “how events like this have influenced politics here and it's scary to witness”, but heading into the new Trump term, her greatest fear is for her mother's continued safety in the US.

David Ibata, a Washington painter and instructor at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, remembers January 6, 2021 “like it was yesterday”, although he says that “these days it feels like 'the sixth' never happened”.

“It felt like the crescendo to the dystopian epic that was Trump's first term … but I don't live in constant fear” of another insurrection, Mr Ibata told The National.

Mr Trump and Mr Vance will be sworn into office on January 20.