On Monday, January 6th, the US Congress certified Donald Trump’s victory in last year’s presidential elections, which took place on November 5, 2024. In order to legally determine the winner of the election, this procedure is required, which involves members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate allocating their state’s votes in the Electoral College and declaring that their state’s election results are “regular in form and authentic”.
Four years ago, when Congress convened to certify current President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Presidential Election, the story was very different. The US Capitol was assaulted by a sea of pro-Trump protesters who believed the election results were fraudulent and that the election had been “stolen” by Democrats. In what has been called an attempted coup by many, protesters egged on by Trump and Republican lawmakers forced their way into the Capitol Building through broken windows, climbed walls, and stormed through doors.

Trump supporters rioting at the Capitol in 2020. (Getty Images, 2020)
The attack, estimated to have caused over $2.8 million in damages, also led either directly or indirectly to the deaths of at least nine people. On the day of the attack, one protester was shot and killed by police, two protesters died of natural causes and another died of a drug overdose. The following day, a Capitol police officer involved in defending the Capitol from the attack died of a stroke many have speculated was related to the attack. The remaining four deaths were all Capitol police officers who committed suicide, all within seven months of the attack.
Trump’s participation in the attack has been subject to much controversy. While Trump has denied that he pushed for his supporters to attack the Capitol, he told a crowd of them earlier that day to “fight like hell, or else you won’t have a country anymore,” a comment topping off months of election denial following his defeat in November of 2019. Trump further resisted bringing in the National Guard to quell the uprising, with some sources saying it was Vice President Mike Pence who eventually made the order. Pence, who resisted calls from Trump not to certify the election, followed through on his constitutional responsibilities and ensured the eventual certification of Biden’s victory, an act that brought upon him a storm of death threats, condemnations, and other forms of abuse from Trump’s supporters. Nonetheless, Trump failed to receive any real consequences. Despite being impeached in the House of Representatives for insurrection, the motion failed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and charges brought against him by the Department of Justice are being dropped anticipating his resumption of Presidential immunity.

Then-Vice President Mike Pence presides over the rescheduled certification of Trump’s defeat in 2020 following the January 6th Attack (Voice of America, 2020)
This year’s proceedings have gone much more smoothly. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over her own defeat, and despite heightened security around the Capitol, no mob like the one seen in 2020 emerged. Under the leadership of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Senate Rules committee underwent a review of the Capitol Police, identifying areas of weakness and recommending ways another January 6th Coup could be avoided. Yet, such improvements were made unnecessary by the lack of any problems like those that emerged in 2020. Democrats have been commended for accepting their loss in last November’s election and not engaging in rhetoric similar to Trump’s “stop the steal” campaign, and in a contrast to Republicans in 2020, no Democratic lawmakers attempted to challenge the validity of the election results.
The contrast between these two election certification processes is clear, and many Americans are thankful that the pandemonium, embarrassment, and damage of the 2020 attack has been avoided. Further contrasts have been drawn between the political behavior of Democratic and Republican politicians. In the months before the 2024 Presidential Election, Donald Trump repeatedly refused to confirm that he would accept the outcome of the election, leading to great outcry from Democrats. As such, the impending return of Donald Trump as president has many questioning whether or not his behavior will replicate that of his first term. What took days of chaos in 2020 was peacefully achieved this year in just 36 minutes, setting the stage for President-elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Featured image: Vice President Kamala Harris and House Majority Leader Mike Johnson preside over the certification. (Saul Loeb, 2025)