Congress ratifies Joe Biden as President of the United States

The Congress of the United States ratifies the election of Joe Biden as the new President of the United States. The session, which should have taken place on Wednesday, was suspended for several hours due to the assault by Trump supporters on the Capitol where this event was taking place. Although the procedure is a mere formality, the interruption was a gesture of rejection of the results, given the widespread belief among supporters of the still president that the election result has been manipulated.

The Electoral College had already presented the official results several weeks ago, but this had to be ratified at a ceremony attended by the president of the Senate and current vice-president, Mike Pence. Both houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, have rejected the objections raised by some unyielding Republicans, who still maintain Trump's discourse on the illegitimacy of Biden's election. These Republicans sought to invalidate the votes of several states, such as Arizona or Pennsylvania.

Since the results became known, Donald Trump and his team have tried to challenge the counts, filing more than fifty lawsuits in different states to try to prevent a Democratic victory that was becoming evident. The different courts have dismissed all the appeals presented by Donald Trump's team, so the possibilities have been reduced to the objections of some of the Republican representatives and yesterday's very serious and unusual assault on American democracy.

Trump's strategy, which many anticipated, could have been catastrophic in the event of a much more even-handed scenario. However, Joe Biden's victory over most of the key states in the final stretch was making his discourse on legitimacy increasingly implausible. A discourse which, despite everything, he has maintained until the end and has given rise to terrible images like those experienced yesterday.

The Biden-Harris pairing won hands down in the voting at the Electoral College. The Democrat candidacy finally obtained 306 votes, 36 more than were needed to win the presidency. This strengthens their position in the face of accusations of fraud by Trump.

Trump, however, has committed himself to an "orderly transition" through a statement following the ratification of Biden's election and yesterday's violence, a situation that does not help his figure at all and greatly deteriorates the international image of the United States.

Despite the commitment and guarantees of a normal transition as of 20 January, Trump maintains his rhetoric of rejection and disagreement with the result of the elections. Trump thus continues with the ambiguity, as he must maintain a balance between presidential responsibility and populist and anti-establishment messages. In the communiqué, which was published by his advisor on social networks, Dan Scavino, he stresses that his term in office has been "the best first presidential term in the history" of the United States, and that he will "make the United States great again".

This ambiguity was also a constant yesterday, as he encouraged the masses to reject the election result, but tried to contain them at the same time in his assault on the Capitol, always with social networks as a shield. Both Twitter and Facebook have been blocked for inciting violence and attempting to use the networks, both platforms have announced.

The next date indicated is now 20 January, when the inauguration of this new Democratic presidency will take place and where Joe Biden will give an opening speech. The figure of Kamala Harris will also be important in this mandate. Many analysts believe that this will be a foretaste of her leap into the presidency in 2024, and this newly elected vice-president will therefore have to be closely followed. 

Among some of the objectives of this pairing is that of free vaccination for COVID-19, an absolute counterpoint to the way in which Trump decided to tackle the pandemic. Other strengths will be climate change, where the United States is expected to return to the Paris commitments, raising the minimum wage and granting nationality to some 11 million immigrants who are undocumented.