Mike Pence, former US Vice President, revealed on 4 February that his former boss, ex-President Donald Trump, was “wrong” to believe that he could have overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election that threw up Joe Biden as the winner.
Pence told a gathering of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group: “President Trump is wrong. 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, that I possessed unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes.”
He 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 anyone person could choose the American president.”
Trump, a pugnacious bully had directed harsh words at his former Vice President for what he termed as his failure to overturn the results of the 2020 contest when Congress tallied states’ votes. Pence decided to give back to Trump in full measure and to reiterate the belief in democracy and the institutions that uphold it in America.
NBC quoted an aide to Trump, accusing Pence of being “disingenuous,” telling NBC that the former president “didn’t ask him to overturn” the election, but rather merely to send electoral votes back to the states.
“I think it’s clear who has the Republican Party voters behind him,” the aide told NBC. “Pence is trying to get relevance. As far as the voters are concerned, they’re not going to buy what Pence is selling.”
Pence also seized the opportunity of the Friday forum to, as reported by CNBC, condemn the invasion of The Capitol on 6 January 2021 by agents sympathetic to Trump. He called it “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”