During his rally in Georgia on Monday night Trump told his supporters that he “hopes Mike Pence comes through for us“. He did no say outright what we all knew he was asking Pence to do.
Just to ensure there was no doubt, Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Pence as vice-president can overturn the results of the election.
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“The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted.
The idea that Mike Pence has the power to “reject” electors was already litigated in court when Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert sued Pence arguing that he, in his capacity as vice-president has the sole authority to determine which states electoral votes should be counted.
Their case was thrown out in court.
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There is nothing Mike Pence can do to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Pence’s role is just to oversee the certification of the Electoral College results showing Biden won. He does not have the power to reject the results or otherwise affect the outcome.
But, how fitting that on his way out the door he’s already setting up Mike Pence to take the fall with his supporters when this last ditched effort to steal the election inevitability fails.
