Congress Certifies Trump as Next US President, Convening as Blizzard Shuts Down DC

Dale Hurd : Jan 6, 2025
CBN News

Today's counting of the Electoral College votes won by Trump and Harris was the final official step to confirm Trump's victory, setting the stage for Inauguration Day on January 20 when Trump will reclaim the White House.

(Washington, DC) — [CBN News] With the nation's capital buried under a white blanket of snow and most of the city shut down by a massive blizzard, Congress convened today at 1 p.m. to conduct their constitutional duty of certifying the next president of the United States. Donald Trump has now officially been certified as president. (Screengrab image: via C-Span)

Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the proceedings as the inclement weather couldn't stop both the House and Senate from meeting in the joint session to officially certify the 2024 elections on Capitol Hill. Trump received 312 electoral votes, exceeding the necessary 270 votes.

For the first time, January 6 was designated a national security event, at the request of DC's mayor. The heightened security measures were in place to prevent any disruptions to the ceremony like what happened in 2020. 

Today's counting of the Electoral College votes won by Trump and Harris was the final official step to confirm Trump's victory, setting the stage for Inauguration Day on January 20 when Trump will reclaim the White House. 

For the Inaugural event, authorities are adding fencing around the perimeter, closing roads, and deploying a large law enforcement presence. The security measures are especially significant after two assassination attempts by gunmen targeting Trump in 2024.

Meanwhile, federal offices were closed today across Washington, DC Before the snowstorm hit, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Fox News bad weather would not delay Congress' certification of Donald Trump's election victory.  (Image: iStock)

"As you know, the Electoral Count Act requires this on January 6th at 1:00 PM, so whether we're in a blizzard or not, we are going to be in that chamber making sure this gets done," Johnson said. Meanwhile, from the central US to the mid-Atlantic, the first major winter storm of 2025 is dumping historic amounts of snow and ice across multiple states.

Kansas and Missouri faced blizzard conditions, with Kansas City, Missouri, getting 11 inches, the fourth-highest one-day snowfall total on record. More than 1,000 drivers were stranded in Missouri on Sunday alone and at least one person was killed in a weather-related crash.

On I-70 in eastern Illinois, cars and trucks slid off the road into a multi-vehicle pile-up. Louisville, Kentucky got over seven inches of snow, breaking the old single-day record set in 1910. In Cincinnati, vehicles were stranded for more than seven hours on I-71 after several semi-trucks got stuck in the snow.

The storm also brought damaging winds to the deep south with tornado warnings yesterday in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. 

After the snow, arctic air is forecast to move into much of the east. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here