Vice President Kamala Harris to Oversee Defeat in White House Election
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to preside over a joint session of Congress on Monday, certifying President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over her in November’s election. This will make her the third vice president in recent history to oversee their own defeat in a White House election.
Harris said her mission is to ensure a peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next, calling it a “sacred obligation” guided by her love of country, loyalty to the Constitution, and faith in the American people. She emphasized the importance of standing up for cherished principles, citing the fragility of democracy and the events of January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Harris will become the first vice president to oversee the congressional confirmation of their electoral loss since then-Vice President Al Gore in 2001, following his defeat to George W. Bush. Four decades earlier, then-Vice President Richard Nixon presided over the certification of his own election loss to John F. Kennedy.
President Biden also emphasized the importance of a peaceful transfer of power, telling new Democrats in Congress that it is their duty to tell the truth about the events of January 6, 2021, and not let them be rewritten or erased.