WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump turned up the pressure on Tuesday to enlist Vice President Mike Pence in a futile effort to reverse the outcome of the presidential election and keep them in office for another four years.
With a president who has excelled at remaining the focus of Washington during his time in office, Pence has largely played the role of quiet support character, never publicly rebuking his boss and sticking to his script with unwavering consistency.
But Trump’s ongoing effort to keep from being evicted from the White House on January 20th has pushed Pence into the limelight and left him in a position those close to him say he is “dreading.”
Pence has a constitutional role in the process of officially making President-elect Joe Biden the commander in chief. On Wednesday, he will be charged with overseeing Congress’s count of the Electoral College votes that have been submitted by the states. A group of Republican lawmakers have announced they plan to object, although they are unlikely to be successful in actually throwing out the Biden votes.
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But Trump wants Pence to simply reject the votes for Biden. Trump tweeted falsely Monday that “the Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” And during a rally in Georgia on Monday, he told supporters, “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us.”
But those close to Pence say they don’t expect any surprises.
Pence intends to act as a moderator during the counting process, filling out his duties as president of the Senate, the sources said. They don’t anticipate he will take any actions to influence the outcome aside from letting members who raise objections carry out a debate over the results as outlined in the rules.
Pence has been “diligent about how he’s approached tomorrow,” one source said. He’s been “studious,” according to the official close to the vice president, reviewing the Electoral Count Act, reading legal opinions in addition to meeting with his chief of staff and general counsel and speaking to experts on the subject matter.
“Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election,” said Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short in a statement over the weekend. “The vice president welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th.”
In recent days, Pence met with the Senate parliamentarian to go over the process and logistics, Short said. Pence scrapped a trip that was in the planning stages to travel to Europe and the Middle East immediately after the congressional certification, according to people familiar with the discussions.
If Pence follows past precedent and the rules laid out by Congress, his role will amount to reading the results once they are finalized and “maintaining order” — a bit of jargon that generally means keeping the chamber quiet.
While more than a dozen Republican Senators have said they will question the results in swing states won by Biden and dozens of House members plan to challenge the results, there are not enough votes in either chamber to overturn the outcome.
Still Trump’s allies have pushed for Pence to use his position to force lawmakers to accept Trump votes instead of Biden electors.
Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Fox News on Sunday that Pence should give into the demands from Republicans senators that there be a 10-day investigation into the election results.
Pence “has the authority to give that 10-day window to do what needs to get done and I cannot imagine when you look to the facts, he won’t vote the right way on that,” Navarro said. There are no indications a majority of Senators will vote to delay certification of the election results.
A lawyer for one alternate slate of delegates said Tuesday that a letter will be sent to Pence today, signed by 75 lawyers representing alternative slates of electors, urging him to delay the electoral college vote count to give the states more time to resolve any disputes. But legal experts said any such move would violate the Electoral Count Act, which says Congress must count the votes on January 6. Pence has no authority to change the date.
‘WHATEVER REPUTATION HE HAS’
Pence has his own political future to consider.
As a potential 2024 presidential candidate, those close to Pence say he does not want to be in his current position.
Pence is “dreading” Wednesday, one source said.
If Pence breaks with Trump, he risks alienating the president’s supporters. If he tries to in any way block the results he could alienate independents and moderate Republicans who disagree with the president’s behavior.
“He’s hoping he can get through it without incurring wrath from Trump and keeping intact whatever reputation he has,” one person close to Trump said Monday
One person close to Pence said that while the vice president and his advisers understand there will be political implications to whatever he does, they see it as a no-win situation and haven’t been trying to find a way to use it to score political points.
Pence is doing everything possible to “appear as loyal as ever” without “destroying his future,” said one person familiar with his discussions.
While the vote count is being readied, Trump will be holding a campaign-style rally outside the White House intended to stop the vote certification with his false claims of widespread election fraud.
Peter Alexander, Carol E. Lee and Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
