How To Watch Congress’ Joint Session To Certify Presidential Election Online & On TV

Alexandra Del Rosario
·4 min read

Congress will count the 2020 Electoral College votes on Wednesday to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s presidential victory in a joint session beginning at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT in the House of Representatives.

The final (and usually pro-forma) step in the POTUS certification process, today’s count is expected to verify the votes electors cast back in December that gave Biden a 306-232 win in the Electoral College, a month after Biden won the popular vote in the general election. The margin of victory is the same in which now-President Donald Trump declared victory in 2016.

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Trump and many GOP members of Congress have disputed the results of the this year’s presidential election, though dozens of attempts to overturn results in both state and federal courts (and two in the U.S. Supreme Court) have failed. Trump continues to press on with unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him, making today’s certification unusually dramatic.

The cable and broadcast TV news divisions are gearing up to air the event providing news, analysis and live reporting. You can also watch the livestream here via PBS NewsHour.

Here are the networks’ coverage plans:

ABC

ABC News Live will present special coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET anchored by Tom Llamas.

ABC News Radio will provide a live Instant Special at 7:06 p.m. Coverage will be anchored by correspondent Aaron Katersky, with reporting by correspondent Karen Travers, political director Rick Klein and contributor Steve Roberts. The one-hour special will also cover the results of the Georgia Senate runoff and will be available as an “ABC News Radio Specials” podcast after it airs.

NewsOne will provide coverage to more than 200 ABC affiliates and international news partner with reporting from Faith Abubey and Andrew Dymburt, with analysis from correspondent Karen Travers from Washington.

CBS

Norah O’Donnell will anchor a CBS News Special Report beginning at about 1 p.m. ET with Nancy Cordes reporting from Capitol Hill, Ben Tracy at the White House, Nikole Killion in Wilmington, DE and Major Garrett and Ed O’Keefe in the studio. CBS News contributor and election law expert David Becker and CBS News contributor and constitutional law expert Jeffrey Rosen will join the coverage.

MSNBC

Stephanie Ruhle will kick off coverage of the vote count on MSNBC Live beginning at 9 a.m. ET. Hallie Jackson will anchor two hours of special coverage from Washington, D.C. at 10 a.m. ET. At noon ET, Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell will lead live coverage and analysis throughout the joint session with Katy Tur in New York. Nicolle Wallace will have the latest updates, insight and analysis during a special Deadline: White House at 4 p.m. ET, followed by continuing coverage of the count throughout the evening.

NBC NEWS

NBC News and NBC News Now will cut into regular programming to cover the certification. NBC Nightly News’ Lester Holt will anchor joined by NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt from Capitol Hill, NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander with President Trump, and NBC News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett with Biden.

NBC News Now will stay in wall-to-wall special coverage until a winner is declared. Joshua Johnson and Alison Morris will anchor. The stream can be watched here.

FOX

Fox News Channel’s coverage will kick off at 1 p.m. ET. Outnumbered Overtime’s Harris Faulkner will anchor coverage with contributions from Special Report’s Bret Baier, The Story’s Martha MacCallum and Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace. Additional commentary and analysis will be provided by senior political analyst Brit Hume and FNC contributor Katie Pavlich from Washington D.C.

The network’s congressional correspondent Chad Pergram and chief congressional correspondent and senior political correspondent Mike Emanuel will report live from Capitol Hill.

CNN

CNN will broadcast The Presidential Election: Congress Certifies the Vote with Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper starting at 9 a.m. ET. From 12 p.m. to 7p.m. ET, Cooper will join Dana Bash, Wolf Blitzer, John King, Abby Phillip, and Jake Tapper as Members convene for the joint session of Congress. CNN correspondents including Jim Acosta, Kaitlan Collins, Lauren Fox, Boris Sanchez and more will report live from D.C., with some covering protests surrounding the vote cote.

David Axelrod, Gloria Borger, Van Jone and Rick Santorum will provide analysis and commentary throughout the day.

C-SPAN

C-SPAN will offer live coverage of the joint session on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Radio and C-SPAN.org. C-SPAN will also have live coverage of the individual House and Senate sessions at noon ET on C-SPAN and C-SPAN2, respectively. Watch the stream here.

PBS

Starting at 9:30 am PT, PBS NewsHour will livestream the Electoral College count on YouTube.

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