Speaking to a gathering of conservatives near Orlando, Florida, this Friday, Mike Pence gave what is his most forceful rebuke of former President Donald Trump to date, directly addressing the notion that he had the power to overturn the 2020 election results during his role as Vice President.
“This week, our former president said I had the right to ‘overturn the election. President Trump is wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election.”
“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes,” Pence continued. “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.”
"President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election," said a defiant @Mike_Pence. pic.twitter.com/dfTMXCNpvQ
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) February 4, 2022
Pence was referring to comments Trump made Sunday, where he claimed that Pence could have “overturned” the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, as he presided over the counting of electoral college votes by Congress.
“Whatever the future holds, I know we did our duty that day,” Pence said. “John Quincy Adams reminds us: duty is ours, results are God’s. The truth is there’s more at stake than our party or political fortunes. Men and women, if we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections. We’ll lose our country.”
“Frankly there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President,” Pence said.
