PoliticoDonald Trump pressures Mike Pence to throw out US election results – even though he can’t
- ‘The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,’ Trump tweets
- Pence is expected to preside over a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, when lawmakers will count Electoral College votes affirming Joe Biden’s win
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nick Niedzwiadek and Kyle Cheney on politico.com on January 5, 2021.
US President Donald Trump pressured Vice-President Mike Pence publicly on Tuesday to reject the results of the Electoral College when they come before Congress on Wednesday, part of Trump’s doomed-to-fail, last-ditch effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
Trump’s tweet represents a fringe and ahistorical interpretation of Pence’s constitutionally required role presiding over a joint session of Congress on January 6, when lawmakers are required to count the Electoral College votes affirming Biden’s win, the last procedural step before his January 20 inauguration.
The process is normally an uncontroversial formality, but it has taken on larger import as dozens of Republican members of Congress prepare to contest Biden’s victory in several battleground states, citing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and irregularities.