YOUR PARANOID QUESTIONS

All Your Paranoid Questions About the Electoral College Certification, Answered

January 6 is going to be unprecedented, but Biden will still become president.

Vice President Mike Pence attends a rally in support of Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in the presidential election has made the ceremonial counting of electoral votes by Congress on January 6 a consequential event for the first time in modern American history. Is there anything that can happen on Wednesday that would allow Trump to actually remain in office for a second term? Let’s look at the precedents — and what will be unprecedented about January 6, 2021.

Joe Biden is still going to be president, right?

Yes.

Then why is this happening?

Because everything is unbearably dumb.

There have been presidential elections so narrowly decided that they spawned full-scale political crises. There have been presidential elections that have fallen just within a hair’s breadth of being that close. The 2020 election was neither. Joe Biden won by a clear and convincing margin.

So this isn’t a nightmare situation?