Sources: Pence told Trump he doesn’t have power to change election result

Vice President Mike Pence told President Donald Trump on Tuesday that he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election despite Trump’s baseless insistence that he did, people briefed on the conversation said.

Pence’s message, delivered during his weekly lunch with the president, came hours after Trump further turned up the public pressure on the vice president to do his bidding when Congress convenes Wednesday in a joint session to ratify Biden’s Electoral College win.

“The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, an inaccurate assertion that mischaracterized Pence’s largely formal and constitutionally prescribed role of presiding over the House and Senate as they receive and certify the electoral votes conveyed by the states and announcing the outcome.

In a process that is likely to go on for many hours, Pence will preside Wednesday over a roll call of the states. If at least one senator and one House member object to the results from a state, they can force a debate of up to two hours about those results. Each chamber will then vote separately on whether to certify that state’s results.

For results to be overturned, both the House and the Senate would have to agree to do so. Because the House is controlled by the Democrats, there is no realistic possibility of any state’s outcome being rejected.

Pence has spent the past several days in a delicate dance, seeking at once to convey to the president that he does not have the authority to overturn the results of the election, while also placating the president to avoid a rift that could torpedo any hopes Pence has of running in 2024 as Trump’s loyal heir.

Even as he sought to make clear that he does not have the power Trump seems to think he has, Pence also indicated to the president that he would keep studying the issue up until the final hours before the joint session of Congress begins Wednesday.