On Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence criticized former President Donald Trump during a speech at The Federalist Society for saying that Pence could have overturned the results of the 2020 election.
“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer of the joint session of Congress, that I possess unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes,” Pence said. “And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election.”
“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence added. “The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”
MIKE PENCE: “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president." pic.twitter.com/7feWD75Fq1
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) February 4, 2022
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short added that Pence had been “crystal clear from day one” that he did not have the authority to overturn the election results on Jan. 6, 2021.
“He extended those remarks a little bit his week … primarily because the president’s comments about the vice president had the ability to overturn the election I think merited response,” Short said. “Of course there’s nothing in the 12th Amendment or the Electoral Count Act that would afford a vice president that authority. It’s why no vice president in 200 years has ever used that authority.”
