Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he would reject President Donald Trump’s demand to try to block confirmation of the election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States by Congress.
Pence’s said in a letter that he did not believe, as Trump has claimed, that a vice president has the unilateral power to reject the votes of a candidate in the Electoral School.
His dramatic breakup with Trump came minutes before the vice president began chairing a joint session of Congress, which meets to declare Biden the winner.
“My judgment is that my oath to support and defend the Constitution obliges me to claim unilateral authority in determining which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence said in a three-page letter addressed in “Dear Companion.”
“Given the controversy surrounding this year’s election, some approach this year’s four-year tradition with much anticipation and others with contemptuous contempt,” Pence wrote.
“Some believe that, as vice president, he should be able to accept or reject electoral votes unilaterally. Others believe that electoral votes should never be challenged in a joint session of Congress. After a careful study of our Constitution , our laws and our history, I don’t think any view is right. “
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is chairing a joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes for the president at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
As Pence released his statement, Trump was speaking at a rally outside the White House, where he reiterated his call on the vice president to undo the Biden election. Trump and his allies claim, without proof, that he and Pence lost to Biden and to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris because of widespread voting fraud in a handful of states that gave Biden his margin of victory.
“Mike Pence, I hope you stand up for the good of our Constitution and the good of our country, and if you’re not, I’ll be very disappointed in you, I’ll tell you now,” Trump said at the rally.
“I don’t hear good stories.”
Several courts have rejected Trump’s allegations of fraud and electoral irregularities.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the vice president’s letter.
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