original full-color photo: AP

Today, Congress is set to certify the 2024 election results, officially confirming Donald Trump as president for another four-year term.

Vice President Kamala Harris will preside over the certification, a process that former Vice President Mike Pence previously carried out on January 6, 2021. However, History will record that Pence’s role was interrupted when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, forcing members of both parties in the House and Senate to seek shelter and protection in various locations. The attack resulted in deaths, injuries, and widespread destruction at the heart of our nation’s government.

Despite Trump’s message to supporters on the White House Ellipse that day that the vice president could stop the certification process, Mike Pence stated: “My oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”

History will also record that during the Capitol attack, Secret Service agents swiftly evacuated the vice president from the House chamber, relocating him to a secure location to ensure his safety amidst the shouts by rioters “Hang Mike Pence.”

Sadly, many of Trump’s most ardent supporters continue to believe—despite an overwhelming majority of people around the world witnessing the violence unfold in real-time—that the attack was part of a grand conspiracy involving false flags, Democratic insurgents posing as supporters, and deep state operatives orchestrating the event.

For the past four years, former President Trump has persistently denied the truth about the events of January 6 and refused to accept the reality of his loss in the 2020 election, but History will remember both truths.

In his speech on the Ellipse, the former president inflamed supporters by claiming the election had been stolen, urging them to “fight like hell” to save the country and pressuring the vice president to “do the right thing” by stopping the certification of votes that were legally counted in both Republican- and Democratic-leaning states—votes that confirmed Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the 2020 election.

History will remember that on January 6, 2021, then-President Trump spent over three hours in the White House watching the attack on the Capitol unfold on television before releasing a video message telling his supporters to “go home,” “We love you. You’re very special.”

The following day, Trump reportedly referred to the events of January 6 as “a day of love.” History will remember the falsehood of that claim.

On October 16, 2024, Donald Trump stated at a Univision town hall, “There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns.”

History will record that many Trump-inspired rioters did have guns when they attacked the Capitol: Guy Reffitt brought a handgun to Capitol grounds and had an AR-15-style rifle in his hotel room. As reported by NPR, “Mark Mazza, who pleaded guilty to carrying two loaded handguns; Jerod Thomas Bargar, who pleaded guilty to carrying a loaded handgun; Christopher Alberts, a former National Guardsman, who was convicted of assaulting police while dressed in body armor and carrying a loaded handgun; Jason Parsons, who pleaded guilty to carrying a Glock handgun; and Roger Preacher, who pleaded guilty to carrying a .22 caliber handgun.”

History will record that Donald Trump stated, “It will be my great honor to pardon the peaceful protestors, or, as I often call them, the hostages.”

Two days after his Univision appearance, Trump said, “Why are [those arrested, prosecuted, and serving prison sentences] still being held? Nobody’s ever been treated like this.” History will record that many of those serving sentences for the attack either pleaded guilty or were lawfully convicted for their participation in the Capitol attack.

History will remember that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared Trump “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day” and then voted against the impeachment of Trump.

After conducting interviews with numerous Republicans who were present during the attack or had direct access to the White House and Congress, the House Select Committee on January 6—comprising Democrats and two Republican members—concluded that former President Donald Trump played a central role in inciting the attack on the Capitol by spreading false claims about the 2020 election, pressuring officials to overturn the results, and failing to act promptly to stop the violence. The Committee emphasized the threat this posed to democracy and made several recommendations to prevent similar events in the future.

Last year, the president-elect stated that members of the House January 6 Committee should be jailed. “Everybody on that committee … for what they did, yeah, honestly, they should go to jail.”

History will document this and countless other vital facts.

Nonetheless, Trump supporters have effectively air-brushed the significance of January 6 in their perception of the incoming President.

But History will remember.