The American Congress certified Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election on Monday, thus confirming the triumphant return of the Republican billionaire to the White House before his inauguration on January 20.
Protocol irony, it was Kamala Harris, her defeated rival, who officiated Monday, in her capacity as vice-president, four years to the day after the assault on the Capitol by hundreds of supporters of the Republican.
“Donald J. Trump, from the state of Florida, received 312 votes” from the electors who constitute the American electoral procession, proclaimed the vice-president at the conclusion of this protocol ceremony. “Kamala D. Harris of the State of California, received 226 votes,” she added.
The president-elect welcomed in advance a “great moment in history” Monday morning on his Truth Social platform, posting a few minutes later a photo of the crowd of his supporters gathered in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Despite the winter storm that hit Washington and covered the capital in a blanket of snow, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, guaranteed Sunday that the certification would take place, “whether we are in the middle of a blizzard in No”.
This procedure traditionally represents a formality before the official inauguration of the new president on January 20.
Facing Kamala Harris on Monday in the hemicycle, her Republican successor as vice-president, JD Vance, was seated in the front row.
“Like devils”
In 2021, this role of No. 2 of the American state had been at the heart of Republican protests. Donald Trump, who then repeatedly repeated without evidence that the election had been “stolen” from him, had urged his vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to certify Joe Biden's victory.
And in a speech outside the White House on the morning of January 6, he called on his supporters to “fight like hell,” before thousands of them marched to the Capitol.
The temple of American democracy had experienced a surge of violence: attackers hitting overwhelmed police officers with iron bars, breaking windows before entering the building, shouting “Hang Mike Pence”.
Four people in the crowd died that day, including one who was shot and killed by a police officer while trying to force his way into the House of Representatives chamber.
Four police officers also committed suicide in the days and weeks after the attack.
Congress finally certified Joe Biden's victory the next morning.
This time, the Capitol Hill took on the air of an impregnable fortress, with a large police force and high barriers erected around the enclosure, even if no overflow took place.
Don't “forget”
If the events of January 6 shocked the United States and the world at the time, the traces in the minds of Americans are gradually disappearing today.
And a majority of voters did not hold it against Donald Trump in November.
Joe Biden, however, called on Sunday not to “forget” or “rewrite” what constituted a “real threat to democracy”.
On the Republican side, many today prefer not to talk about it.
“I'm not looking in the rearview mirror,” Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CBS News on Sunday. “That was four years ago. I think Americans live in the present,” he added.
At the beginning of December, Donald Trump promised to examine from the “first day” of his return to the White House potential pardons for his supporters who had stormed the Capitol, more than a thousand of whom were convicted by the courts. .
A decision that would go down badly with the Democrats, but also with certain police officers present and injured that day, like Aquilino Gonell, who criticized the Republican's promise in a column in the New York Times.
“I sometimes wonder why I risked my life to defend elected officials from a mob motivated by Mr. Trump, all to see him return to power stronger than ever,” wrote the ex-police officer.
■
