Live updates as Congress counts electoral votes today to finalize Trump’s victory

On Monday, lawmakers will finalize the results of the 2024 election. It was on this day four years ago that now President-elect Donald Trump delivered a speech denying his 2020 defeat, which was followed by an assault on the U.S. Capitol. Trump has pledged pardons for the rioters but has not specified if it’ll be all or just some. CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane has more:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled the attack on the Capitol in a statement Monday, saying “our nation watched in horror as a terrorist mob stormed the Capitol grounds and desecrated our Temple of Democracy in a violent attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power” four years ago. 

“The January 6th insurrection shook our Republic to its core — and left behind physical scars and emotional trauma on members of our Congressional community and our Country that endure to this day,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi was speaker at the time and was targeted by some of the rioters who searched for her in the Capitol on Jan. 6. In an appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Pelosi said that the violence “didn’t end that day,” accusing Trump of stoking continued violence and connecting it to an attack on her husband in 2022. 

In the statement Monday, Pelosi urged Americans not to forget the “extraordinary courage of law enforcement officers,” who she said “stood in the breach and stared down the insurrectionists to protect the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution.”

The former speaker said Jan. 6 is a reminder “that our precious democratic institutions are only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with their care,” hailing how Congress returned to the Capitol to preside over the certification of the election results after the attack in 2021. 

“As we gather today under President Lincoln’s dome to uphold our oath and peacefully certify the will of the people, we all share a responsibility to preserve American democracy — which Lincoln called, ‘the last best hope of earth,'” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the 2024 election, pledged in a social media post Monday morning to “perform my constitutional duty as vice president of the United States to certify the results of the 2024 election,” calling it a “sacred obligation.”

“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris said in the minute-long video. “As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny. 

Four years ago, former Vice President Mike Pence presided over the certification of the election results amid a pressure campaign from Trump allies to reject the results. During the process, the vice president reads aloud the electoral votes, before lawmakers count each state’s results to affirm the president-elect’s victory. A 2022 law further defined the vice president’s role as ceremonial. 

Harris concluded in the video that “as we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” adding that it’s up to “each one of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.”

“And to make sure that in America, our government always remains of the people, by the people and for the people,” the vice president said. 

In an op-ed for the Washington Post published Sunday evening, President Biden accused Trump and his allies of trying to rewrite history when it comes to the attack on the Capitol. 

“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day. To tell us that 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,” Mr. Biden wrote. “This is not what happened.”

The president continued: “In time, there will be Americans who didn’t witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand but will learn about it from footage and testimony of that day, from what is written in history books and from the truth we pass on to our children. We cannot allow the truth to be lost.”

He vowed to “do everything I can to respect the peaceful transfer of power and restore the traditions that we have long respected in America,” including by inviting Trump to the White House on Jan. 20 and attending his inauguration.

“But on this day, we cannot forget. This is what we owe those who founded this nation, who have fought for it and who have died for it,” Mr. Biden wrote.

The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted the joint session four years ago will be looming over the proceedings when Congress convenes on Monday.

But unlike on Jan. 6, 2021, when then-Vice President Mike Pence faced pressure to unilaterally toss out electoral votes from battleground states, Monday’s joint session will be governed by a revised set of procedures that clarify the vice president’s role to prevent attempts to overturn the results of an election.

“The 2020 election exposed how ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act could be exploited to sow chaos and disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power,” said Holly Idelson, a policy strategist at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. “The bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 will help ensure future transitions proceed smoothly and honor the will of the voters.”

Read more about how this Jan. 6 will be different here.

While Congress meets Monday to count the Electoral College votes and affirm Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, the roughly 1,500 people accused of storming the Capitol four years ago will be focused on what happens next. 

Charged as part of the largest Justice Department’s investigation in history, they have been waiting to see if Trump fulfills his promise to pardon them or commute their sentences.

Prosecutors have charged more than 1,580 defendants with crimes tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including more than 170 who are accused of using deadly or dangerous weapons like fire extinguishers and bear spray against officers. While a majority were charged with nonviolent misdemeanor crimes, some were accused of conspiring to use force to resist the peaceful transfer of power. Others admitted to fighting officers and attacking members of the media. 

But with Trump’s pledge to pardon at least some defendants and shut down the investigation, many of those who breached the Capitol four years ago could see their convictions erased and records wiped clean.

Read more here.

Senators and members of the House will meet in a joint session at 1 p.m. to tally the electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Vice President Kamala Harris will preside in her role as president of the Senate.

The vice president will read aloud the electoral votes, and then Congress counts each state’s results to affirm Trump’s victory. Trump won 312 Electoral College votes, far surpassing the 270 needed for victory. Harris won 226 votes.

The process is typically a ceremonial step before a president is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Read more about the process here.