Pence says he can’t reject electoral votes
McConnell: Challenging Biden win threatens republic
WASHINGTON — Infuriating President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged Wednesday he does not have the power to throw out the electoral votes that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next president, dashing Trump’s baseless hopes that Pence somehow could find a way to keep them in office.
And in a further action to anger Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged fellow Republicans on Wednesday to abandon their effort to overrule President-elect Joe Biden’s election triumph, directly rebuking Trump and asserting that the GOP drive threatened the country’s democratic foundations.
Pence, under intense pressure from Trump and his allies to overturn the election results, issued a lengthy statement laying out his conclusion that a vice president cannot claim “unilateral authority” to reject states’ electoral votes.
“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence wrote in a letter to members of Congress before he gaveled in the joint session of Congress.
In a remarkable moment underscoring the dramatic split between Trump and his once most loyal lieutenant, Pence released the statement just after he arrived at the Capitol to tally the electoral votes and even as the president was telling thousands of supporters gathered near the White House that Pence could overturn those results.
“If Mike Pence does the right thing we 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 didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,“he wrote. “USA demands the truth!”
After losing court case after court case, and with no further options at hand, Trump and his allies had spent days in a futile bid to convince Pence — and his legion of supporters — that the vice president had the power to reject electors from battleground states that voted for Biden.
He doesn’t. The Constitution makes clear that the vice president’s role in the joint session is largely ceremonial, much like a master of ceremonies.
While Pence allies had made clear that he intended to defy Trump, the vice president’s public statement was nonetheless a significant departure for Pence, who has spent the last four years defending the president and carefully avoiding his ire.
Pence was ushered out of the Senate chamber to a secure location as protesters breached the building. And it was the vice president, not Trump, who spoke with the acting defense secretary to discuss mobilizing the D.C. National Guard on Wednesday afternoon.
And so, as Trump’s rally continued in the bitter cold, Pence opened the proceedings and began to open the certificates of the electoral votes from each state and present them to the appointed “tellers” from the House and Senate in alphabetical order. The process was soon put on emergency hold as protesters broke into the Capitol, overwhelmed police and forced the evacuation of the vice president and members of Congress.
“The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now,” Pence later tweeted. “Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.”
When the count ultimately ends, Pence will then have the task of announcing the contests’ winners and formalizing his own defeat.
Despite claims by Trump and his allies, there was not widespread fraud in the election. This has been confirmed by a range 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 have presented credible evidence that would change the outcome.
“The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken,” said McConnell, RKy., as the Senate debated a challenge by a handful of GOP lawmakers to the 11 electoral votes that Arizona cast for Biden. “They’ve all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever.”
Arizona’s were the first of several states’ electoral votes that some Republicans are challenging, encouraged by Trump’s groundless charges that the election was riddled with fraud. Congress seemed certain to reject all those challenges and formally affirm Biden’s victory. All 50 states have certified the electoral votes.
The showdown came on one of the most convulsive days in the country’s recent political history.
The Senate suspended its deliberations after chanting protesters gained entry to the Capitol, prompting police to lock down the building. Some lawmakers tweeted that they were sheltering in place. Thousands of pro-Trump protesters rallied in the nation’s capital, answering appeals by Trump himself, who addressed supporters gathered outside the White House.
In addition, with party control of the chamber at stake in a pair of runoff elections in Georgia, Democrats won one of the races and seemed on the brink of winning the other. Two Democratic victories would produce a 50-50 Senate, which Democrats would control with the tie-breaking vote of Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris.
In recent weeks, McConnell has challenged Trump, whose term ends Jan. 20, with increasing frequency, including helping override Trump’s veto of a defense bill and working to kill Trump’s push for $2,000 economic stimulus payments to Americans.
But McConnell minced no words Wednesday as he spoke on the Senate floor against Trump’s futile bid to reverse his reelection loss.
“If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,“McConnell said. “We would never see the whole nations accept an election again. Every four years would be a scramble for power at any cost.“
After four years in which Trump has frequently resorted to falsehoods, McConnell said, “We cannot keep drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts and separate realities.“He said the country risked taking “a poisonous path where only the winner of an election actually accept the results.“
Despite McConnell’s opposition, 13 GOP senators had said they would join scores of their House colleagues Wednesday and object when Congress formally affirms Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Even before Wednesday, McConnell warned his colleagues that the showdown was risky because it will force GOP senators, including those in potentially tough 2022 reelections, to decide whether to support or oppose the tweet-happy Trump in a fight they were sure to lose. In mid-December, McConnell privately warned them that pressing the issue would force a “terrible vote,” even as he publicly congratulated the Democrat Biden for his win, ignoring Trump’s refusal to concede.
McConnell has actively avoided confrontation with Trump whenever possible, but he is plainly fed up with the Trump chaos.
But McConnell was powerless to prevent the objections, which are allowed by the Constitution and federal law if one representative and one senator challenge a state’s electoral votes. He also faced overpowering political dynamics, including some senators’ expected 2024 presidential ambitions, others’ desire to protect themselves from 2022 primaries prompted by an offended Trump, and the temptation to use the fight to raise money and buttress support from Trump’s ardent followers.