Kamala Harris’s unpleasant task on a drama-free Jan 6

Four years after Donald Trump’s supporters violently protested the 2020 election, Kamala Harris certified the incoming president’s win, but she had one final crack at her opponent.

On January 6, 2021, the police officers tasked with protecting the US Capitol were fighting for their lives. On January 6, 2025, they were fighting to stay awake.

As members of Congress gathered to certify the presidential election results, an officer was snoring in a basement cafeteria, unbothered by occasional messages on his radio. Upstairs, his colleagues yawned as they roamed a building that was all but empty except for them.

It was sensible, of course, for the Capitol to be locked down. No one wanted to risk a repeat of the invasion in which Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop the transfer of power.

Kamala Harris certifies her loss to Donald Trump in a joint session of Congress. Picture: AFPAFP)

But it was little wonder some officers did not want to be there, not when the man who fuelled the violent threat to America’s democracy was the man now returning to its highest office.

“Let’s just get it over with so we can get out of here,” one said, as Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the Capitol to oversee the certification of Mr Trump’s stunning comeback.

Ms Harris was aghast at the idea that she would even consider not fulfilling her constitutional responsibility. It was “a sacred obligation”, she said, as unpleasant as it must have been for her.

US Vice President Kamala Harris hits the gavel after reading the vote totals as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson looks on during of a joint session of Congress. Picture: AFP

After all, she had staked her campaign on the dangers of voting for someone only willing to accept the results if he won. And here she was, counting the votes that confirmed his victory.

Inside the Capitol, two weeks before Mr Trump’s second inauguration, it was almost as if the events of four years ago never happened. There was no sign of the damage caused by the rioters, nor of a plaque that was supposed to honour the police officers who served that day.

An act of Congress in 2022 called for it to be installed on the building’s western side, where the violence ignited and where Mr Trump will take the oath of office for a second time.

And yet, rather mysteriously, the law of the land has not been followed in the place it is written.

Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance is congratulated after the Electoral College vote was certified during a joint session of Congress. Getty Images via AFP

Before the certification began, Democrats who braved a winter storm to be there said they would not challenge the results. Even if they had wanted to, it would have been far more difficult, with the rules having been tightened after Mr Trump’s allies tried to overturn his defeat.

In the end, the proceedings were over quickly, watched on TV by the President-elect from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. On his social media platform, he complained that Joe Biden was “doing everything possible to make the transition as difficult as possible”, as the President signed last-ditch executive orders to implement his agenda.

After Mr Trump visits the Capitol to be sworn in, he will try to rip them up. He is also expected to sign an order of his own, pardoning those responsible for trying to stop the transition itself four years ago.

Originally published as Kamala Harris’s unpleasant task on a drama-free Jan 6