International Courant
We don’t know whether or not Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump will win the White Home this fall.
However there are two issues we do know:
The 2024 presidential election is more likely to be tight. And whatever the victor, Harris will co-preside over her victory or defeat when the Home and Senate convene a joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral Faculty outcomes on Jan. 6, 2025.
She’s required to take action.
The Home and Senate will convene a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2025, to certify whether or not Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump received the 2024 presidential election. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs | Brandon Bell/Getty Photographs)
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The Home and Senate are the quadrennial arbiters of the electoral vote on Jan. 6. That’s why the date was so controversial 4 years in the past. It devolved right into a riot and emerged as one of many ugliest days in American historical past. What was often a sleepy, ceremonial affair on Jan. 6 to tabulate and log out on the electoral vote emerges forevermore as a significant nationwide safety occasion – alongside the strains of State of the Union. And prefer it or not, potential controversy over the certification course of subsequent Jan. 6 doubtless positive factors momentum by the truth that Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee and shall be on the dais for her defeat or victory.
This situation is simply one other radiating political isotope, augmenting our already unsteady political local weather. It doesn’t assist issues that Jan. 6, 2025, would be the first time Congress has met to certify the Electoral Faculty because the mayhem of just about 4 years in the past. That’s augmented by the truth that Trump stands to both formally win or lose on that day, too.
The vice chairman presides over joint periods of Congress alongside the speaker of the Home. Underneath the Structure, the vice chairman additionally serves as president of the Senate – the one chief talked about within the Structure in relation to the Senate. Joint periods of Congress are particular parliamentary occasions. Congress solely convenes in such a conclave for the president’s State of the Union deal with and to certify the Electoral Faculty outcomes.
Vice presidents typically duck joint conferences of Congress (notice the slight distinction). They appear the identical, however aren’t. Each our bodies of Congress assemble within the Home chamber for a joint assembly. These circumstances are reserved for lawmakers to obtain a overseas dignitary. Notably, Harris didn’t preside over a joint assembly of Congress for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu final month.
Nonetheless, the speaker of the Home at all times presides because the lead determine of that physique – and the constitutional officer of the legislative department of presidency.
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Protesters loyal to President Trump rally on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photograph/Jose Luis Magana, File)
We don’t know who will seem alongside Harris on the dais for the Electoral Faculty certification subsequent 12 months. That hinges on which occasion wins the Home. Underneath the Structure, the brand new Congress begins Jan. 3 at midday and should first elect a speaker. It’ll doubtless both be Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., if Republicans retain management. If Democrats flip the Home, anticipate them to faucet Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., as speaker.
The certification of the electoral vote falls on Jan. 6 by design. That offers the brand new Congress a couple of days to organize after it begins on Jan. 3. Furthermore, Congress is tasked with certifying the election on Jan. 6 so there’s ample time to organize for the inauguration of the president: midday on Jan. 20.
It’s not remarkable for a vice chairman with pores and skin within the recreation to preside over the Electoral Faculty certification joint session of Congress. Vice President Richard Nixon presided over his personal re-election alongside President Dwight Eisenhower within the January 1957 joint session. Nixon was additionally vice chairman for the January 1961 session, watching himself lose to President John F. Kennedy. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic nominee in 1968. So he co-presided over the joint session in January 1969 when Nixon lastly ascended to the presidency.
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Talking of Minnesota, Vice President Walter Mondale chaired the lack of President Jimmy Carter and himself to President Ronald Reagan within the 1981 joint session. Future President George H.W. Bush was available for the re-election of Reagan and himself in January 1985. As vice chairman, Bush then officiated over his personal victory aspresident in January 1989. Nonetheless, issues weren’t as nice for former Vice President Dan Quayle 4 years later. Quayle co-moderated the loss by Bush and himself to President Invoice Clinton within the January 1993 joint session.
Vice President Al Gore was on the dais for the re-election of Clinton and himself in January 1997. However Gore discovered himself in a very awkward spot on the dais 4 years later. Gore presided over his personal defeat in 2001 to President George W. Bush, after the election of 2000, one of the vital controversial in U.S. historical past. Throughout the joint session, a parade of members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried to contest the slate of electoral votes from Florida – which Gore famously misplaced. Nonetheless, not one of the Home members had a Senate co-sponsor to problem the Florida vote.
Joe Biden presided over the Electoral Faculty certification for President Barack Obama’s re-election in January 2013. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was a kind of pushing for debate on Florida’s electoral voters. Gore requested Waters if she had a Senate petitioner.
Waters replied that she didn’t and that she “didn’t care.”
Gore famously lower off Waters with a magnanimous line which drew applause.
“The foundations do care,” noticed Gore.
Vice President Dick Cheney was there for the re-election of Bush 43 and himself in January 2005. Nonetheless, there was a bona fide problem to the Ohio slate of electors by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio.
Biden presided for President Barack Obama’s re-election in January 2013. That additionally returned Biden to the vice presidency. And Biden helped oversee issues in January 2017 when Donald Trump prevailed.
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And naturally, all of us now know the efforts employed by Trump loyalists to strain former Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.
Issues shall be somewhat totally different in January 2025. In late 2022, Congress adopted main modifications to the archaic, Nineteenth-century Electoral Rely Act, which ruled the electoral certification course of. Among the many largest modifications: a clarification that the function of the vice chairman is simply ceremonial. Lawmakers needed to make it clear that the vice chairman lacked energy to just accept or reject sure slates of electors. Furthermore, the brand new legislation made it more durable for lawmakers to problem a state’s electoral slate. Earlier than, it simply required a sole Home member and sole senator to affix a petition. Present statute raises the bar to one-fifth of every chamber to contest a state’s electoral ballots.
So – win or lose – Harris doesn’t have a lot of a task aside from to indicate up.
However simply her presence on the poll because the Democratic standard-bearer, presiding over her personal election or loss, intensifies the character of that continuing. Particularly after what we witnessed 4 years in the past.
Chad Pergram at present serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX Information Channel (FNC). He joined the community in September 2007 and is predicated out of Washington, D.C.
As vice chairman, Harris should attend the Jan. 6 electoral school certification
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