On today’s show: Congress is set to certify the 2024 election without incident. It’s a very different picture from four years ago, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The violence still haunts some people who were there. The nation is honoring Jimmy Carter this week for dedication to integrity and honesty. The surgeon general says there’s a causal link between consuming alcohol and cancer. He wants new labels on alcohol containers warning consumers about the risk. Plus, how to prepare for this week’s dangerous winter weather, new details on the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, and Hollywood’s biggest winners at the Golden Globes. Today’s episode was hosted by Gideon Resnick.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Monday, January 6th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shemitah Basu. Hope you had a great holiday season. This is Apple News Today. Coming up on today's show, remembering Jimmy Carter, a new warning about alcohol, and how to prepare for the cross-country winter storm. But first, today Congress will formally certify Donald Trump's presidential election victory.
Despite a snowstorm that's closed federal offices in D.C., Congress will still meet. And USA Today reports that the certification process is expected to go smoothly, with no reports of threats to the process. But just four years ago, it was a very different story. That is the sound of Trump supporters attacking the U.S.
Capitol on January 6, 2021, as they tried to stop the certification of that presidential election. One protester was shot and killed. About 140 police officers were injured in what the Justice Department has called possibly the largest single-day mass assault of law enforcement in American history. Today's certification is expected to be without incident.
No one is publicly contesting the results, for one. And after the riot four years ago, Congress passed an updated version of what is called the Electoral Reform Act. It makes it clear that the vice president, in this case Kamala Harris, does not have any power to determine the results of certification. It also makes it more difficult for a member of Congress to make an impactful objection.
And there are now more security measures in place. Still, some of those on the front lines of the attack in 2021 remain haunted by that day. NPR visited with the family of Brian Sicknick. He was a Capitol Police officer who was sprayed with a chemical substance as he defended the building from rioters. Sicknick died of multiple strokes the following day.
Sicknick's father told NPR that the conspiracy theories that followed the day's events have led him to distance himself from others.
I have lifelong friends that I don't associate with anymore because of what happened. You know, to them, it's not a big deal because it wasn't their son, you know.
Sicknick's mother told NPR she's worried Trump may pardon the people who were convicted of crimes on January 6th.
What I'm very upset about that might happen is that he's going to let all these people out of jail. It's just not right.
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