A certifying vote as it should be

Meeting in a joint session of Congress on Monday, the Senate and House of Representatives followed the constitutional provisions for certifying a presidential succession — thus ensuring Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Let's breathe a brief sigh of relief for following the laws and practices of the republic.

This exercise would not merit special praise and notice but for the bloody Trump-incited Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021 that threatened to unlawfully derail the Joe Biden presidency, which ends in two weeks.

Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the vote certification, as constitutionally prescribed. As usual, members of Congress from both parties opened sealed certificates from all 50 states to record their electoral votes and confirm they fit the proper form. The results were read — 312 for Trump and 226 for Harris.

Unlike her predecessor Mike Pence four years earlier, Harris faced no demands from the White House that she undermine the certification. She faced no divisive objections from the floor. Monday's procedure took about a half hour. It demonstrated that the certification should never have prompted the chaos it did four years ago. Harris acted as Vice President Richard Nixon did in 1961, as Vice President Al Gore did in 2001, and as Pence did in 2021, despite the fact he was vocally targeted and threatened by the MAGA-riot mob for doing his job. In all four instances, the VP was on the losing ticket.

In 2022, the second year of the current administration, Congress deemed it necessary to clarify in the law how states certify electors and what role the vice president plays. That law averts the fictitious pettifogging that Trump directed when he refused to accept the voters' choice.

On Monday, none of the members of Congress rose with objections. There was no White House plan this time to try to assign impostors to the Electoral College. A peaceful transfer of power is virtually certain.

Getting past the GOP’s bitter hoax of 2021 does not mean accepting the gaslighting and historical revision that underlies Trump's governing style. All the court proceedings, congressional testimony, and voluminous video of the past four years point to rock-solid proof of a Trump-inspired 2021 insurrection prompted by lies and dishonesty. And yet, when it comes to his 2020 defeat, the mendacity of Trump and his team persists. Trump called properly-prosecuted rioters "hostages" and promised to pardon a number of them. What's worse, Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, seems to go even further by spinning a bizarre "theory" that the agency he might lead orchestrated the Jan. 6 riot.

Spin pervades Washington. But deliberately distorting facts and refusing to explain a situation is more transgressive than hyperbole. Nobody can change events after they occur. Trump lost in 2020 and won in 2024. The time has come for empowered MAGA Republicans to end the partisan histrionics — and stop the spiel.