Vice President Kamala Harris shared a message to the nation Monday as she prepared to preside over a joint session of Congress to certify her defeat to Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris says in the video address. “As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”
“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 continues. “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.”
Harris is not the first vice president to be given the unenviable task of certifying their own defeat. Al Gore did so after his loss to George W. Bush in 2000, as did Richard Nixon when he was narrowly beaten by John F. Kennedy in 1960. Harris will be the first, however, to certify a loss against an opponent who has previously refused to concede defeat in a presidential election.
She will stand at the rostrum and count the votes against her exactly four years since the day when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election from being certified. Trump has said he will likely start granting clemency to rioters early in his new administration.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” Harris says in her video message, without naming Trump explicitly. “And it is up to, then, each one of us to stand up for our most cherished principles, and to make sure that in America, our government always remains of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
In an all-caps Truth Social post Monday, Trump remarked on the significance of the day.
“CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY,” the president-elect wrote. “MAGA!”
