E-Paper
US Vice-President Mike Pence finally shuns his boss Donald Trump
Pence withstood mounting pressure from his president to reject US Congress’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory
US Vice-President Mike Pence finally came through, but not as directed by his boss, outgoing President Donald Trump.
Pence withstood mounting pressure from Trump to reject US Congress’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory, and early on Thursday declared the Democrat and his running mate Kamla Harris winners of the electoral college with 306 votes each, to 232 for Trump and himself, ending their term in office.
“The whole number of electors appointed to vote for president of the US is 538, of which a majority is 270… Joseph R Biden, of the state of Delaware received for president of the US, 306 votes. Donald J Trump of the state of Florida has received 232. The announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice-president of the United States.
Each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2021, and shall be entered together with the list of the votes on the journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives,” Pence said on early on Thursday, ending a day that will long be remembered for the infamy visited upon it by the outgoing president, who unleashed an attack on US Congress.
Pence’s unquestioning public loyalty to Trump in the past even in the face of the president’s most egregious behaviour had been a cause for mounting concern as Trump, having gotten nowhere with lawsuits and vote recounts, came to pin on him his hopes of a second term despite having lost to Biden decisively in the electoral college and by more than 7 million popular votes.
“If Vice-President @MikePence comes through for us, we will win the presidency,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, just as he was heading out to address a “Save America March”, where he incited his supporters to march on to Congress.
He tagged on one of his many false claims of poll fraud - “Many states want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect and even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their state legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”
Mike couldn’t, Pence had told Trump in a meeting in the White house the day before, according to reports. The vice-president, who served many terms as member of the House of Representatives before becoming governor of Indiana state, his last job before Trump had asked him to join his ticket, is said to be acutely conscious and respectful of democratic norms.
He told Trump it was not within his constitutional authority to reject Biden’s victory when presided over a joint session of the two chambers of Congress for the final stage in a presidential election, to certify the electoral college results.
“It is my considered judgement that my oath to support and defend the constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence wrote in a statement that was circulated just minutes before he started the joint session.
The New York Times reported Pence had reiterated the same argument in a conversation on Wednesday morning.
Pence had not been as forthright in remarks in days before. He had sought to portray his views as aligned with the president’s even if did not go as far as to say what he will do. At an election rally in Georgia, the vice-president had said, “We’ve all got our doubts about the last election. I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities.”
Though he did add, wriggling out of a commitment, “we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the evidence.” He did not say what he will do with the evidence, which never qualified to be called that.
Pence had planned to not overturn Biden’s election, and would probably have done so anyway. But did the outrage triggered by the storming of Congress by Trump’s supporters embolden him enough to go through with this resolve to defy the president openly and actually do it?
