Whether at rallies or on Twitter, President Donald Trump has urged Vice President Mike Pence, the President of the Senate, to do something—anything—that will help the 45th president remain in office for another four years. That’s just not going to happen, and President Trump asserting that Pence has the “power” to make it happen on Wednesday, Jan. 6 is false.
The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2021
“The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, apparently oblivious of recent developments in the courts. Let’s be clear: There are no “competing” or “alternative electors”; the election results in every U.S. state have been certified and the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden have been cast. The Twelfth Amendment says that the VP, as President of the Senate, “shall […] open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.”
Legal experts were clear on the subject in response to Trump’s tweet.
Here’s a thread explaining the basis for Trump’s argument that Pence can make decisions on Electoral College slates. I don’t think the Constitution gives the VP that power. But I also don’t think Congress can constitutionally reject state-certified Electoral College slates. https://t.co/0aEDHytY4i
— Ross Garber (@rossgarber) January 5, 2021
1. There were no fraudulently chosen electors.
2. Even if there were, the Vice President lacks that power.
The VP does not have veto power over American presidential elections. https://t.co/nfEUvcsxYi
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 5, 2021
"The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted." — U.S. Const. amend. XIIhttps://t.co/0L3Dk6T1s3 https://t.co/7ojtbGOVWJ
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 5, 2021
Four sitting Vice Presidents lost presidential elections: Breckinridge in 1860; Nixon in 1960; Humphrey in 1968; and Gore in 2000.
If Vice Presidents had *any* control over the Electoral College—let alone this kind of control—one might think *someone* would've tried it by now. https://t.co/7ojtbGOVWJ
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 5, 2021
1) These fraud claims are an absolute myth.
2) Wrong on the VP's constitutional power. https://t.co/OLcDWc4xfw
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) January 5, 2021
Wrong, skippy. Wrong. https://t.co/rcCe2mxwcc
— Mike Dunford (@questauthority) January 5, 2021
Like most of what the President says this is not only false—the truth is the exact opposite.
Pence has NO power to reject electors. The law reserves that authority exclusively to the 2 houses of Congress who must agree. They won’t.
I explain it all here: https://t.co/F34pxGeity pic.twitter.com/GYPUIFadSc
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) January 5, 2021
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 5, 2021
At a Monday rally in Georgia, Vice President Pence pretty much outlined the extent of his “power” when he said that complaints would be heard on Jan. 6. It’s worth paying attention to what he did and did not say.
What Pence said:
I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.
What Pence did not say:
I have the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.
At the rally, Pence urged Trump supporters to vote in the Senate runoff elections. A person could be heard responding, “We need you do the right thing January 6,” highlighting that the president’s voters do, indeed, think Pence can do something significant.
President Trump catered to this even more by saying at the rally, “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you.” The crowd cheered.
“I hope that our great vice president—our great vice president, comes through for us. He’s a great guy. Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him as much,” Trump said, laughing. “Nah, Mike is a great guy he’s a wonderful man and a smart man and a man that I like a lot.”
To be able to reject so-called “fraudulent” electors, whatever that means, would constitute a unilateral power for Pence or any vice president to ignore or throw out exactly the number of electoral votes needed to ensure his or her own reelection, thereby (as Republican Sen. Tom Cotton points out) abolishing the Electoral College in effect and rendering the vote of the American people irrelevant.
By asserting—repeatedly and in crowded public places—that Pence has a power that Pence does not have, Trump has created a situation where Pence will be left holding the bag. Pence will be remembered by millions of the president’s supporters as the guy who did not do something that he could not do.
[Image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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