News Brief: Congress Certifies Trump’s Election Victory; Mayorkas: US Facing Complex Threat Landscape

Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) preside over a joint session of Congress to certify the 2024 presidential election in Washington on Jan. 6, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas, we have a number of dynamic stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.

Vice President Kamala Harris is tasked with the unenviable chore of certifying the presidential election, our country’s top Homeland Security official weighs in with his sobering thoughts regarding threats to our country, and a leading member of the Senate talks about various challenges concerning U.S. border security.

Also, President Joe Biden takes significant action regarding off-shore drilling, and just days before leaving office, he signs a new law that gives a Social Security boost to millions of Americans.

We have a number of intriguing stories to share with you today, and we begin with this. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory was certified on Monday by the person whom he defeated to become the next commander-in-chief, and more now on that story.

Congress Certifies Trump’s Election Victory

Congress has just certified Trump’s electoral victory in the 2024 election.

In her role as president of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris oversaw the certification of her own election loss, and the process confirmed that Trump received 312 electoral votes to her 226.

When asked how she was feeling moments after the vote, Harris told The Epoch Times that it was both a “peaceful transfer of power” and “a good day.”

Additionally, the certification was largely uneventful, with Democrats raising no challenges to any of Trump’s electoral wins.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Trump emphasized the importance of the certification, calling it a “big moment in history.” As is tradition, he did not attend the event; however, Vice President-elect JD Vance (R-Ohio) was there, because he’s still a member of the U.S. Senate until he’s sworn in on Jan. 20.

The certification process took less than 40 minutes to complete—a far cry from the previous certification, four years ago, which took 14 hours to complete. At that time, some members of both the House and Senate objected to results from a number of battleground states, where they believed election fraud had been committed.

During the Jan. 6, 2021, certification process, Trump called on his supporters to go “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol to protest as the certification was overseen by then-Vice President Mike Pence, who affirmed President Joe Biden’s win despite Trump’s objections.

Also on that day, hundreds of protesters entered the U.S. Capitol, and while most were peaceful and entered through main entrances, a minority were accused of violent crimes, including assaulting police officers, carrying lethal weapons, and breaking Capitol windows.

The incident prompted Congress to pause its certification process. Ultimately, it certified Biden’s win in the morning hours of Jan. 7, 2021. Since that day, more than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol breach, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), and around 750 people have been sentenced on charges ranging from trespassing to seditious conspiracy.

We continue now with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who says that last week’s terror attack in New Orleans is not related to our country’s border issues, and that right now, we’re facing what he calls a very complex threat landscape. More now on that story.

Mayorkas: US Facing Complex Threat Landscape

Mayorkas says the United States is facing a “heightened threat environment” following the New Year’s Day attack, and that over the past 10 years, his office has observed a significant increase in what they call “homegrown violent extremism.”

He says the federal government, state leaders, local officials, and residents nationwide all need to be on high alert and that we all need to take necessary precautions in order to avoid future violence from taking place.

In a recent interview, Mayorkas said the safety and security of the American people is both his department’s and the federal government’s highest responsibility, and that they work to meet that challenge each and every day.

He also pointed out that the suspect allegedly responsible for the New Orleans attack was born and raised in the United States, and that he served in the U.S. military.

Mayorkas said that in the wake of the New Year’s Day incident, his office is now working with local law enforcement and implementing a number of substantial precautionary measures in order to ensure the safety of all the upcoming events in New Orleans, including next month’s Super Bowl.

We’ll make the move now to a lofty campaign promise that President-elect Donald Trump has made regarding deportations, and one leading Republican says the plan doesn’t sound entirely workable. More now on what we’re learning.

Senate Majority Leader: GOP Needs to Be Realistic on Mass Deportation

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says that during the last four years, more than 10 million people have come into this country under the current administration’s policies, and that many of them are “not here for good reasons.”

He says that a number of them have committed crimes, that they will be prioritized for removal first, and that the Biden administration already has a list of nearly 1.4 million people for deportation.

In a recent interview, Thune outlined a number of specific actions that President-elect Donald Trump can take when he returns to the White House. Thune said that securing the border is the top priority, followed by making sure we change the “incentive structure” so that people aren’t encouraged to come here illegally.

He also said that our country must do everything we can to make sure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and border personnel have all the resources they need to do their jobs effectively.

Thune went on to say that the Senate will make sure the incoming Trump administration will have all of the resources it needs as well to get the job done.

However, he also questioned whether or not it will be realistic to deport everybody, due to the high number of people who are here illegally. However, he pointed out that anyone who’s committed a crime should be on the deportation list and that they’ve already been identified.

By the way, earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security estimated there were about 11 million illegal immigrants living inside the United States. Also, some immigration advocacy groups say that the deportation plan would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and would result in a significant economic downturn.

We’ll continue now with a look at the energy sector and offshore drilling, which has just been dealt a substantial blow by the outgoing administration. A look at the ban and what President-elect Donald Trump has to say about an issue that many of us are highly concerned about.

Biden Bans New Oil and Gas Drilling in 625 Million Acres of Federal Waters

President Joe Biden says he’s banning new oil and natural gas drilling in more than 625 million acres of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as parts of the Bering Sea off Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

The president says that the areas he is withdrawing from fossil fuel use show “relatively minimal potential,” and that drilling there does not justify the possible environmental, public health, and economic risks that would come from leasing those areas.

Meanwhile, Trump says that the Biden team is trying to make things difficult for his incoming administration, and that as soon as he takes office, he’ll immediately reverse the action, which he called “ridiculous.”

However, the new ban has no expiration date, and it’s unclear whether or not the incoming administration will be able to reverse the measure.

Biden says that his decision “reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.”

He added that as the climate crisis continues, our country is transitioning to a clean energy economy, and that now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.

A spokeswoman for Trump said Biden’s ban is at odds with the mandate given by the American people to the president-elect to both increase drilling and lower gas prices.

The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas trade association, also panned the move. However, a number of environmental advocates hailed Biden’s action, and they thanked the president for listening to the voices of the coastal communities and contributing to the “bipartisan tradition” of protecting our coasts.

We have just enough time to pore over a big change to Social Security, and while new legislation will benefit millions of people, some say the change could damage the solvency of our nation’s retirement income program, and more now on that story.

Biden Signs Law to Increase Social Security Benefits for Millions

President Joe Biden has just signed into law a bill that increases Social Security benefits for about 3 million teachers, nurses, and other public employees, as well as their spouses and survivors.

A White House official told The Epoch Times that by signing the legislation, which is known as the Social Security Fairness Act, Biden became the first president in 20 years to expand Social Security benefits.

The legislation recently passed both the House and Senate by substantial margins, garnering overwhelming bipartisan support. Additionally, both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have repeatedly expressed their support for Social Security along with their opposition to any revisions that would reduce benefits or raise the retirement age.

Supporters say this new legislation is a long overdue correction to provisions in the law that deal with federal, state, and local pensions and limit some benefits for public servants.

However, repealing these provisions is expected to increase the federal government’s Social Security expenditures; one conservative think tank estimates the bill will cost nearly $200 billion over the next decade, and it says this will speed up the Social Security program’s insolvency.

Critics of the bill also say it gives an unfair financial boost to government workers who were exempt from paying Social Security taxes on their salaries in the first place.

By the way, the Congressional Budget Office has calculated that Social Security is currently set to run out of money sometime around 2033.

Before we go, a number of other important headlines we’re following closely in the News Brief newsroom:

In New York, Justice Juan Merchan has rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s attempt to delay his sentencing date set three days from now over his conviction for falsifying business records.

In Washington, both U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel have just filed a lawsuit in federal court, and they’re suing to challenge the Biden administration’s recent decision to block a nearly $15 billion deal for the Japanese company to take over its U.S.-based competitor.

Also in Washington, the body of former President Jimmy Carter will lie in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol beginning later today.

And in Canada, amid declining poll numbers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will resign as that country’s prime minister and Liberal Party leader as soon as a replacement is chosen.

And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Tuesday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.

To make contact with the News Brief crew, simply reach out to us via email, and we’re at [email protected]. You can also leave comments for us on the Epoch Times app, which you can download for free on either the App Store or Google Play.

Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.

And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from Albert Schweitzer, who said: “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”

Schweitzer was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician.

For all of us here at the Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.

Enjoy the remainder of your day, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.

For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.