Congress Has Learned Nothing From Jan. 6th

“It’s gonna take a long time to recover.”

(Composite / Photos: GettyImages)

Congress certified the presidential election results without the slightest hiccup Monday, with snow covering the Capitol instead of the violent mob egged on by Donald Trump. Still, it appears only the U.S. Capitol Police took lessons from the chaos and violence of four years ago. Multiple heavy iron gates surrounded the Capitol complex, along with layered checkpoints and more-stringent-than-usual ID scrutiny. Police were everywhere, making up the single largest group on site. Second would be reporters, then staff.

The members of Congress appeared to have learned almost nothing. Republicans gloated and celebrated the process that many of them attempted to stymie four years ago. Democrats sulked and honored the process.

In years past, some House Democrats objected to certification—through the regular order—as a means of protesting elections that didn’t go their way. Those objections were not at all comparable to what happened after the 2020 election. But either way, it’s no longer the practice. And now, certification has become a one-sided courtesy.

The usual GOP characters were in a jubilant mood. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), who before coming to Congress in 2021 was at the infamous Trump rally and near the Capitol but did not enter the building on January 6th, interrupted my conversation with Marjorie Taylor Greene (R.-Ga.) to declare “what a great day for America” it is. Greene and her nemesis, Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), were both wearing MAGA hats while Vice President-elect JD Vance got enough backslaps to require a discectomy.

House Republicans also held their conference-wide meeting Tuesday morning in the Pelosi Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building. That’s notable for a couple reasons. First, they almost never hold weekly conference meetings there—I actually can’t think of another time. Most meetings are held in the Capitol basement conference room, while occasionally they are conducted at the Capitol Hill Club (a private social club connected to the Republican National Committee headquarters). The Pelosi room¹ is where the January 6th Committee hearings were held.

Democrats, meanwhile, were serious and straight-faced throughout the day. As the votes were counted, I watched Democrats clap for their respective states’ results, regardless of which presidential candidate won. I did not see the same enthusiasm from blue-state Republicans.

In fact, the only Democratic flub came from Vice President Kamala Harris, when she vowed to “perform my constitutional duty as Vice President to certify the results of the 2024 election.” (Vice presidents don’t certify anything in this process. They simply preside over Congress’s counting of state-certified results. That’s literally what the coup attempt was about. Sigh.)

What a difference four years makes

That’s what the day looked like from a wide-angle lens. To better understand how individual lawmakers were feeling, I sought out two senators with different experiences from years ago: Andy Kim (D-N.J.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

In 2021, Kim was a member of the House, and like most lawmakers, spent the day running, sheltering, and helping others. He also voluntarily picked up garbage across the Capitol after police had finally flushed out the rioters. Photos of him doing so went viral.

Now, freshly sworn in as New Jersey’s junior senator, he thought back on that and other moments:

I was walking around earlier today, just kind of to reflect upon four years ago. One thing I learned four years ago is that we’ve got deep problems. It’s more than just about one person in the Oval Office. It’s not just about Trump. It’s not just about this moment. It’s gonna take a long time to recover. I hope people will see today that January 6th should be an unremarkable day.

Scott, meanwhile, noted that he was relatively new to this process. “I’ve only done it once,” he said, referring to the 2021 counting of the votes. This time around, he told me it was refreshing to actually sit through the vote-counting.

“So it’s hard to remember that part of it because all we remember is what happened when people broke into the Capitol,” Scott said. “It’s nice that Trump had an overwhelming win, which made it a lot easier for everybody.”

I guess that’s all it takes for things to go smoothly on Scott’s side of the aisle. For the record, Joe Biden’s win in 2020 was more overwhelming than Trump’s in 2024. Each won the same swing states for roughly the same Electoral College count. But Biden got 51.3 percent of the popular vote. Trump scored 49.9 percent. Details.

The Zuck stops here

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a slew of changes at Meta Tuesday morning. Many of them are clearly aimed at appeasing what is likely to be an extremely hostile and reflexively authoritarian Trump administration.

• Fact checking is shifting away from third parties and into a X/Twitter-style community notes method.

• Speech restrictions and certain safety rules will be lifted.

• The content review team is moving from California to “Texas and other US locations” to reduce bias, because bias doesn’t exist outside of California or something.

Long before I came to The Bulwark, I reported on Congress for Business Insider, often covering the overlap of tech and politics. During that time, various congressional committees hauled in Zuckerberg or his deputies. These hearings were tumultuous and generated a lot of headlines, thanks to protests and stunts (Alex Jones was a regular fixture in the audience). However, the companies emerged relatively unscathed because the hearings almost always devolved into billionaire tech executives explaining the basics about social media to old and out of touch lawmakers, or strange and unrelated inquiries.

Meta’s newly promoted global policy chief, Joel Kaplan, has long been a fixture in Washington. He’s also a lifelong Republican and close friends with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.²

A new addition to the Meta team is Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, who is joining the company’s board. That addition has come to the consternation of some Meta employees, who have noted in internal (and deleted) chats that there is video of White slapping his wife in a nightclub.

But in White, Zuckerberg is getting a critical ally and friend of Trump, which could prove useful in the event things get difficult for Meta during the next four years.

The prospect of a vindictive and weaponized federal government is a great threat to these companies and they know it. As a result, they have determined that the safest bet is to appease the incoming administration in as many ways as possible. They may be alright. As for their users, who knows?

Dick Cheney, style gawd

It’s a well known style hack that the best-fitting men’s clothes tend to be military surplus items. That is because they are built for movement, function, and make you look taller and more broad shouldered.

While reading an interview with science fiction author William Gibson over at one of Press Pass’s favorite publications, Heddel’s, I noticed a familiar name.

My rule is that if Dick Cheney couldn’t wear it without creating a stir, I shouldn’t either. I like clothing that isn’t easily noticed. I know a man in London who wears Savile Row suits the way some people wear hoodies, and he says the greatest thing about them is that “nobody knows what you’ve got”. They actually have *no* labels. Very Cayce.

The article also included a great photo of Cheney wearing a green N-3 snorkel parka in a sea of standard black coats in 2005. You’ll have to check out the whole piece to get a glimpse.

Read it here.

1. It was previously called the Cannon Caucus Room, but Congress renamed it after Nancy Pelosi in late 2022. Republicans still call it by its old name in their press releases and media advisories, though.

2. Kaplan sat behind Kavanaugh during his blockbuster confirmation hearings. While he was working for Meta at the time, his presence there was in a personal capacity.