45th President Donald Trump says a new bipartisan bill limiting future election challenges is proof Mike Pence could have done more to help him in his quest in 2020.
According to constitutional attorneys, whose analysis of the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was pointed to by the former president in the aftermath of the controversial 2020 Presidential Election, the Vice President has the authority to reject a state’s slate of electoral votes in the event that voter fraud, or other election-related discrepancies delegitimize the election results.
In such an event, according to the legal opinion, the Vice President is obligated on December 23 to instruct these states to “fix” their election problems and take specific measures to ensure the validity of the results before sending their slate of electoral votes to Congress to be certified on January 6.
WATCH: Mike Pence sends letter to Congress ahead of joint session.
"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." pic.twitter.com/VcBszZwAvC
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 6, 2021
If no action is taken on December 23 to ensure election integrity, constitutional attorneys have stated, the Vice President would then be required to disregard electors from affected states during the January 6 joint session of Congress — potentially triggering a contingent election should neither candidate receive the required 270 electoral votes.
Critics of the theory have claimed that the constitutional interpretation would seemingly give the Vice President unilateral authority to determine the outcome of a presidential election — a power that the official does not actually possess.
Amid the former President’s claims that the November 2020 election was rife with widespread voter fraud, corruption, and other election discrepancies that affected the outcome of the race in several swing states, pressure was put on former Vice President Mike Pence to send a demand letter to Secretaries of the contested states on December 23 requiring that they address purported evidence of election fraud.
Pence ultimately never acted on December 23, and subsequently rejected any notion that he had the power to reject fraudulent slates of electors on January 6. Members of both Houses concurred with the Vice President, and officially certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election — much to the dismay of President Trump and his supporters.
"TRUMP IS WRONG": Former VP Mike Pence forcefully rejected notions that he should have overturned presidential election results on January 6, 2021.
"I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone." pic.twitter.com/LmjCYZIsA3
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 4, 2022
Despite permanent Washington’s fervent claims that the Vice President has no such authority to ensure the integrity of a presidential election or reject fraudulent slates of electoral votes, a bipartisan group of senators in July proposed legislation to reform 1887 law to “clarify” it’s “ambiguous” language regarding the Vice President’s role.
According to President Trump, Washington’s move to change the law is proof that he and other constitutional experts were correct in their analysis.
“I don’t care whether they change The Electoral Count Act or not, probably better to leave it the way it is so that it can be adjusted in case of Fraud, but what I don’t like are the lies and ‘disinformation,’ put out by the Democrats and RINOS,” the former president wrote in a series of Truth Social posts on Tuesday.
Trump White House Archived / Flickr
“They said the Vice President has ‘absolutely no choice,’ it was carved in ‘steel,’ but if he has no choice, why are they changing the law saying he has no choice?” he added.
“Simply put, it is because the Vice President did have a choice, and looking back at it now, the 2020 Voting Fraud was far greater than anyone thought possible, with even our Government, through the FBI, changing the results of the Election by millions and millions of votes,” President Trump said.
Upon learning that Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recently announced his support for the Electoral Count Reform Act, President Trump stated, “In other words, John Eastman and others were correct in stating that the Vice President of the United States had the right to do what should have been done.”
President Trump added that if his critics were truly correct in claiming that the Vice President had no such authority, they wouldn’t be attempting to change the 1887 law.
“The only reason this change is being promulgated is to reform The Electoral Count Act so that the VP cannot do what they powerfully said he couldn’t do, but if it couldn’t be done, why are they making this law change? The whole thing is one big Scam!” Trump wrote.
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