Congress certifies Trump’s win with no objections from Democrats

Lawmakers certified President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory on Monday in a largely quiet affair that marked the second U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms.

The proceeding that made Mr. Trump’s victory official took a little over half an hour. It placed him alongside Grover Cleveland, the first commander in chief to serve nonconsecutive terms in 1885 and 1893. It also solidified his political comeback in Washington and moved Republicans one step closer to implementing Mr. Trump’s agenda.

“In two weeks, President Trump will take the oath of office, cementing the greatest political comeback in American history,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican. “His landslide election and corresponding mandate from the American people dictate that Congress waste no time in delivering on the ‘America First’ agenda, and we are prepared to hit the ground running.”

Democrats saw the proceedings through a somber lens and remained true to their promise not to object to the certification process.

“We accept the results, even though we don’t like them, because our loyalties lie with the Constitution and with the rule of law,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said in floor remarks ahead of the certification. “We hope what happens today, rather than what happened four years ago, stands as a shining example for future generations of how one conducts themselves in a free democracy.”

It was the first time congressional Democrats did not raise a challenge to a Republican winner of the presidential election since certifying George H.W. Bush’s victory in 1989.

Democrats fiercely criticized Republicans for objecting to certifying Joseph R. Biden’s 2020 election win. A new law increased the threshold to challenge the Electoral College results from one House member and one senator to at least 20% of members from either chamber, making a challenge more difficult. It also affirmed that the vice president’s role is purely ceremonial.

As the Electoral College tally from each state was read in the House chamber, applause erupted on the corresponding sides of the aisle for the votes won by either Mr. Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, who had the awkward job of presiding over the joint session of Congress.

Looking on from the front row was Vice President-elect J.D. Vance of Ohio, who, until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, is serving his term in the Senate.

As they looked forward to Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Republicans settled into their majority control of the House and the Senate. They are trying to coalesce around a plan for the budget reconciliation process, which is not subject to the Senate filibuster but comes with strict rules that any legislative changes must have a significant budgetary impact.

Republicans hope to use the process to push Mr. Trump’s agenda without needing Democratic votes. That agenda includes extending his 2017 tax cuts, securing the border and temporarily extending the nation’s debt limit.

House Republicans favor a single, colossal package, while Senate Republicans are partial to a two-bill approach. 

Mr. Trump told interviewer Hugh Hewitt that he was keen on creating one big package but acknowledged that it would take more time than splitting his priorities between two bills.

“I would prefer one, but I will do whatever needs to be done to get it passed,” Mr. Trump said.

Supporters hope Mr. Trump will fulfill his campaign promise to pardon people charged in connection with the Capitol Hill riot four years ago. Mr. Trump said he plans to pardon Jan. 6 defendants but has not been specific about how many of more than 1,500 he would grant clemency.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, compared the treatment of people charged and detained four years ago to those who received little to no punishment for their roles in riots across the country in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. 

“They all should be pardoned,” Ms. Greene said. “And I think this country should never allow this type of abuse of our justice system.”

Mr. Schumer said it is “utterly outrageous that the president [elect] is considering pardons for these rioters who broke the law.”

The relatively quiet process Monday, all the more subdued by a heavy snowfall that virtually shut down Washington, was a far cry from the writhing mass of humanity that burst through the doors and windows of the Capitol four years earlier.

On Monday, Democrats recalled the events of the protest and riot. Their campaign of condemning the Jan. 6 riot failed to sway voters in the November elections. Mr. Trump won a return to the White House, and Republicans retained control of the House and seized control of the Senate.

Republicans have sought to poke holes in the narrative that they say Democrats crafted in the wake of Jan. 6, particularly Mr. Trump’s level of involvement. Although they did not make a fuss on the House floor, Democrats did not want to let a change of administration wash away reminders of the violence and damage on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and other Democrats affirmed their commitment to a peaceful transition of power but beckoned the country to not forget.

“We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it. We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago,” Mr. Biden wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day,” he said. “To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.”