On Wednesday, Slate is publishing live updates throughout what is expected to be an eventful day in Washington D.C., as supporters of President Donald Trump gather on the Mall and Congress meets to count and certify Joe Biden’s victory. While Jon Ossoff’s victory hasn’t been officially called as of 11:00 a.m. (though he delivered a victory speech), Democrats are also expected to win both of the seats that were up for grabs in Tuesday’s runoff election in Georgia, which will give them control of the Senate. Jim Newell will be in the Capitol covering the vote, while Aymann Ismail is on the Mall covering the rally.
11:20 a.m.: What to Expect From the Count and RallyOn Wednesday, Congress will meet to count and certify Joe Biden’s 306-to-232 Electoral College victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Because Trump has spent the last two months attempting to delegitimize that outcome in a feeble coup attempt, what is normally a pro forma joint session of Congress will have some fireworks. More than a dozen Republican Senators have promised to join more than 100 Republican members of the House in objecting to the votes of various swing states won closely by Biden. Though some symbolic objections have been made during the joint session in the past, never before have this many members of Congress tried to openly overturn the will of the voters.
The mechanics of the day, though, should be pretty normal. Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, will be handed electoral college results in alphabetical order by the clerks. He will read those results, and will hear objections. Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin are the states most likely to see objections. If the objections are in writing from at least one member each of the House and Senate, then the two chambers will separate for up to two hours of debate and a vote on the objections. Democrats already have more than enough votes to kill these efforts in both chambers, but it could last several hours.
The only real wrinkle is Trump’s pressure campaign to try to get Pence to unilaterally overturn the vote based on completely unfounded fraud claims. Trump went on a Twitter rant overnight in which he repeated his desperate effort to cajole Pence into taking part in his coup effort. “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency,” Trump tweeted last night. And this morning, he tweeted: “All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!” The New York Times reported last night that Pence already told Trump there’s nothing he can do to unilaterally overturn this election, but it will still be interesting to see how he plays the day, particularly given what appears to be the Democratic takeover of the Senate last night with victories in Georgia.
- Jeremy Stahl
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