Vice President Kamala Harris released a video Monday morning saying she would uphold her Constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2024 election.
‘Today at the United States Capitol, I will perform my Constitutional duty as vice president of the United States to certify the results of the 2024 election,’ Harris said. ‘This duty is a sacred obligation, one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people.’
That means she’ll be sitting front-and-center as Congress certifies President-elect Donald Trump‘s win over her own candidacy.
It marks a final humiliation after Trump beat the Democratic nominee in all seven swing states after she took over the top of the ticket from President Joe Biden in late July.
‘The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,’ Harris said in the video. ‘As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy and tyranny.’
She alluded to the January 6th Capitol attack on the riot’s fourth anniversary.
‘As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,’ she noted. ‘And it is up to then each one of us to stand up for our most cherished principles and to make sure in American our government always remains of the people, by the people and for the people.’
Harris isn’t the first vice president to have to chair the session overseeing an election loss.
Democratic Vice President Al Gore was in the same position after losing the Electoral College vote – but not the popular vote – to Republican George W. Bush after the 2000 election, which went down to one swing state – Florida.
Gore chaired the session, as did Vice President Richard Nixon when he lost the 1960 election to Democrat John F. Kennedy.
When Vice President Hubert Humphrey lost the 1968 election to Nixon, he skipped the session on January 6th to attend the funeral of the first U.N. secretary general.
Several vice presidents also had to chair the session after voters decided against keeping them in that position for a second term.
That includes Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump wanted Pence to use his role as chairman of the joint session to toss out results from swing states that Biden won as part of his broader effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence refused and remains a persona non grata in Trumpworld.
Trump chose Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to replace Pence on the 2024 presidential ticket.
President George H.W. Bush’s No. 2, Vice President Dan Quayle, had to oversee the session when they lost reeelection in 1992, as did President Jimmy Carter’s Vice President Walter Mondale.
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