WASHINGTON (AP) – Outgoing President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, acknowledged on Wednesday that he does not have the power to cast the ballots that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next president, giving Trump’s unfounded hopes that Pence somehow can find a way to keep them in office.
Pence, under intense pressure from Trump and his allies to block the election results, issued a lengthy statement in which he concluded that a vice president could not demand a “unilateral authority” to reject the states’ election votes not.
“It is my judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution prevents me from demanding unilateral authority to determine which ballots should be counted and which should not,” Pence wrote in a letter to members of Congress before entering the joint meeting. sitting of Congress.
In a remarkable moment that highlighted the dramatic rift between Trump and his once most loyal lieutenant, Pence made the statement just after arriving at the Capitol to vote in the election, and although the president had thousands of supporters near the White House said Pence was able to overturn the results.
“If Mike Pence does the right thing, we will win the election,” Trump told supporters, who later marched through Washington and stormed the Capitol.
Trump tweeted his disapproval of Pence after returning to the White House.
“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what needed to be done to protect our country and our Constitution, and gave the States the opportunity to confirm a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones they asked for earlier. to confirm, “he wrote. ‘The US demands the truth!’
After Trump and his allies lost after the court case and no further options were available, they spent days in a futile attempt to convince Pence – and his legion of supporters – that the vice president has the power to expel voters from the battlefield states. who voted for Biden.
He does not. The Constitution makes it clear that the vice president’s role in the joint sitting is largely ceremonial, just like a master of ceremonies.
While Pence allies made it clear that he intended to defy Trump, the vice president’s public statement was nonetheless an important departure for Pence, who has spent the past four years presiding over the president and carefully avoiding his anger. .
Furious Trump runs the risk of losing Pence’s meticulous political future. Pence looked to the White House in 2024 and tapped into his years of loyalty to Trump to help him stand up in an overcrowded field. Even outside his office, Trump is expected to remain the de facto leader of the Republican Party for years to come and a political king.
Trump spent much of Wednesday angry over Pence’s actions, even as violent protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol and forced lawmakers to hide and sharpen the proceedings. Even as the violence unfolded, most of Trump’s attention was devoted to Pence, according to a White House official who spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Pence was led from the Senate chamber to a safe place when protesters entered the building. And it was the vice president, not Trump, who spoke to the acting secretary of defense on Wednesday afternoon to mobilize the DC National Guard.
Pence made it clear in his three-page letter that he would follow the Constitution, not the Commander-in-Chief, regardless of the political consequences. He acknowledged that a vice president had no unilateral power under the Constitution and that the congressional rules governing the Electoral College. The rules make it clear that it is up to members of the House and Senate to address objections and assess their merits.
As Trump’s protest continues in the bitter cold, Pence begins the proceedings and begins to open the certificates of the electoral votes of each state and submit them to the appointed ‘counters’ of the House and Senate in alphabetical order. The process was soon put into emergency when protesters broke into the Capitol, overwhelmed the police and forced the evacuation of the vice president and members of Congress.
“The violence and destruction that is taking place at the American Capitol must stop and it must stop now,” Pence later tweeted. “Everyone involved must respect law enforcement and leave the building immediately.”
When the score finally ends, Pence will have the task of announcing the winners of the matches and formalizing his own defeat.
Despite claims from Trump and his allies, there was no widespread fraud in the election. This was confirmed by a variety of election officials and by William Barr, who stepped down as attorney general last month. Neither Trump nor any of the lawmakers promising to object to the count provided credible evidence that would change the outcome.