Congress certified the 2024 election, and Florida prepares to raise the minimum wage.
Stories in this Episode of Political Connections
Congress certifies Trump’s election win four years after Jan. 6 attack
Four years after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep Donald Trump in power, lawmakers gathered for a joint session of Congress to certify the president-elect’s 2024 Electoral College victory two weeks before he returns to the White House.
The proceedings were far less eventful than in 2021, when rioters attacked law enforcement and attempted to reach lawmakers behind barricaded doors, with then-Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials whisked off the House floor to heavily guarded locations. This time, Trump’s general election rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, oversaw a calm, peaceful and relatively short certification process that saw no objections from House or Senate members.
“The votes for president of the United States are as follows: Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes,” Harris said after each state’s electors had been counted. “Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes.”
Trump also beat Harris by around 2 million ballots in the popular vote. Unlike the 147 Republican lawmakers who objected to Trump’s 2020 losses in certain states, frustrated Democrats have accepted the decision of the voters.
The day’s return to a U.S. tradition that launches the peaceful transfer of presidential power comes with an asterisk as Trump prepares to take office in two weeks with a revived sense of authority. He denies that he lost fairly four years ago, muses about staying beyond the Constitution’s two-term White House limit and promises to pardon some of the more than 1,250 people who have pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes for the Capitol siege.
Trump’s lawyers ask judge to halt Friday’s hush money case sentencing while they appeal to block it
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday moved to indefinitely postpone this week’s sentencing in his hush money case as he appeals a ruling that upheld the verdict and put him on course to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes.
Trump’s lawyers say the case should be halted automatically while they ask a New York appeals court to reverse Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision last week, which set the case for sentencing on Friday — little more than a week before the president-elect’s inauguration.
If sentencing proceeds as scheduled, Trump’s lawyers argued, he will be appealing the verdict while in office and will be “forced to deal with criminal proceedings for years to come.” They raised an improbable scenario in which, if Trump wins his appeal, he could be then subjected to another criminal trial while in office.
Merchan rejected Trump’s bid to throw out the verdict in light of his impending return to the White House but signaled that he is not likely to sentence the Republican to any punishment for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if the ruling is allowed to stand.
Trump’s lawyers, who are also challenging Merchan’s prior refusal to dismiss the case on presidential immunity grounds, say their appeal to the appellate division of the state’s trial court should trigger an automatic stay, or pause, in proceedings. If that doesn’t happen, they said, Merchan should step in and halt Friday’s sentencing.
They asked the judge to inform them of his decision by Monday afternoon “to allow sufficient time for President Trump to seek an emergency appellate review.”
“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, said it will respond in a court filing.
Florida minimum wage will rise in 2025
Florida’s minimum wage will increase one dollar starting Sept. 30, 2025.
Non-tipped workers will earn a $14 hourly rate, giving them roughly an additional $2,000 per year. Meanwhile, tipped workers will earn $10.98 per hour.
The incremental increase comes as Floridians navigate inflation and a higher cost of living. Matt Allen is an investor and financial educator. He is the founder and CEO of Bean Wealth.
“Inflation is so incredibly high that $1 would not move the needle at all,” Allen said. “The first thing that has to change really is prices have to go down. The average person can’t take their family of four out on a Friday night to go to dinner. It’s been a very tough time for people.”
Florida voters in 2020 approved a Constitutional ballot amendment that is inching the state minimum wage toward $15 dollars an hour in 2026. After that, Florida will adjust the minimum wage based on inflation.
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