Trump rejects face-to-face statement on demand to overturn the election

Vice President Mike Pence revealed that he had no power to change the election results in the presence of President Donald Trump on the 5th (local time). It was virtually rejecting President Trump’s request to overturn the results of the election at a joint Senate-Household meeting on the 6th.

According to a report from the New York Times (NYT) citing a White House source, Vice President Pence said at a luncheon with President Trump that day, “I believe I have no power to stop Joe Biden from accrediting Congress to win the presidential election.” The luncheon was held after President Trump pressured Vice President Pence on Twitter, saying, “The vice president has the power to reject the fraudulently elected electoral group.”

The joint Senate-House Meeting is the last legal process to finalize the results of the presidential election. The Senate and House of Representatives come together to publish and certify the results of the electoral votes sent from each state to Congress in alphabetical order.

The Senate Chairman will lead the joint meeting, while the US Senate Chairman will be taken for granted by the Vice President. According to conventional practice, this procedure is a formal procedure for accepting the election results on December 14 last year. As the chairman of the Senate, the Vice President was also solely in the role of proceeding.

But President Trump and his supporters see this process as a last chance to disagree with the presidential election. In theory, it is not impossible to overturn the electoral vote results. At a joint meeting, when one member of the Senate and House of Representatives disputes the results of a particular state electoral group, the Senate and the House of Representatives scatter each to discuss and decide whether to approve the electoral group by vote. In fact, some Republican lawmakers and members of the House of Representatives are voicing against the approval.

However, the House of Representatives is led by the Democratic Party, and the Republican Senate leadership is also in a position to accept the election results. Then, President Trump and his aides pressed for overturning the electoral corps vote with the authority of the vice president who led the joint meeting, not with a congressional vote.

President Trump said on the 4th, “I hope our great vice president will do it. He urged the presidential election to overturn, saying, “He is a great person,” and on the 5th, he wrote on Twitter that “the vice president has the authority to reject the fraudulently elected electors.”

Earlier, Republican Congressman Louis Gourmet also filed a lawsuit against Vice President Pence in a federal court in Texas, stating that wide discretion should be guaranteed in the electoral certification process.

However, major local media such as the Washington Post (WP) and NYT explain that “the vice president has no one-sided authority to change the outcomes the states sent to Congress.” According to CNN, Vice President Pence also met with senators earlier this week to review the vice president’s role at a joint meeting, and also heard from White House legal counsel that the vice president has no authority to overturn election results.

Nevertheless, Vice President Pence, embarrassed by President Trump’s repeated unreasonable demands, seems to have decided to escape pressure by using his “legal authority” as a shield. As Vice President Pence aiming to run for president in 2024, President Trump and his supporters cannot be overstimulated.

However, President Trump refuted after the NYT report that “Vice President Pence has never said that,” and “Vice President Pence and I fully agreed that the Vice President has the authority to do so.”

Reporter Seok Kyung-min [email protected]