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Pence said ‘Trump was wrong’ when he said the then vice president had the power to overturn the 2020 election


Speaking at the Florida Federation of Associations convention near Orlando, Pence delivered his strongest response yet. Trump’s Relentless Efforts to downplay the 2020 presidential election, calling it a “non-American” election to show one person may have decided the outcome.

Pence warned conservatives who continued to insist the vice president can change an election, and said that could be a problematic position for Republicans in the next presidential run.

“Under the Constitution, I have no power to change the outcome of our election and (Vice President) Kamala Harris will not have the power to overturn the election when we defeat them in 2024,” Pence said.

Pence’s comments follow Trump’s latest attempt to place the blame on the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election on his former vice president.

In a statement Sunday, Trump suggested that a recent bipartisan effort to modify the congressional electoral college’s counting of votes was evidence that Pence had the power to change the outcome.

Efforts to amending the Voter Count Act, and making it clear that the vice president’s role in counting votes is ceremonial, is moving rapidly in the Senate with the support of GOP Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

“What they’re saying, is Mike Pence had the power to change the outcome and now they want to do it immediately,” Trump said in the statement. “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could overturn His Highness!”

But Pence on Friday insisted that’s not the case, and he said “it’s time to focus on the future.”

“Look, I understand the frustration a lot of people feel about the last election. I was on the ballot,” Pence said. “But no matter what the future holds, I know that day we did our duty.”

Coup Progress: How Trump Tried to Weaponize the Justice Department to Overturn the 2020 Election

Pence has repeatedly defended his role in confirming the election results on January 6, 2021. Speaking to Republicans in New Hampshire in June, he acknowledged that he and Trump are still up. divided over events surrounding the U.S. Capitol riots.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever see each other that day,” Pence said.
In the days that followed, he tell a crowd in California, “There is hardly any more un-American idea than the notion that any person can choose the president of the United States.”

He added that he would be “always proud” that he had completed his hours of constitutional duty after a deadly mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol.

Some supporters have called for Pence to be hanged during their siege of Congress, which came just hours after Trump told the crowd his vice president should “do the right thing” and refused to count the votes. .

Pence directly addressed that comment in December in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.

“I know I did the right thing,” he said.

In determining his return to politics, Pence tried to embrace his record in the Trump administration while detaching himself from his former boss’s relentless quest to sabotage the last election. It’s a tight move that other former Trump administration officials with 2024 aspirations may also have to try, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

But unlike others, Pence is despised by many Trump supporters for refusing to follow the former President into a constitutional crisis. Pence received a chilling reception during a visit to the Orlando area last year to speak at the Belief & Freedom Coalition’s conference, with some in the crowd booing his introduction. A man was escorted out for shouting, “Traitor!”

Pence received a friendlier reception on Friday from members of the Confederacy gathered at the Disney World complex, though dozens of seats remained unfilled. The room fell silent as Pence described the events of January 6, and he received polite applause in defense of his actions.

“This week, President Trump said I have the power to ‘overturn the election.’ But President Trump is wrong,” Pence said. “I have no power to overturn the election.”

The former vice president described the January 6 uprising on the US Capitol in much different terms than Trump and other Republicans have used in recent days.

At a rally in Texas last week, Trump said that if he were re-elected president in 2024, he would consider pardoning people who have been indicted for their roles in the uprising.

And on Friday, hours before Pence was due to speak in Florida, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution formally censoring the GOP Delegates. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for serving on a special congressional committee investigating the events of January 6. That resolution called what happened that day “political discourse” legal.”

However, Pence acknowledged that the revolt as Congress prepared to count the votes of the Electoral College of the states marked “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”

“Life was lost and many were injured, but thanks to the brave actions of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, the violence was quelled, the Capitol was protected, and we re-convened.” Congress the same day to do its job in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this country,” Pence said.

Meanwhile, Pence’s former employee is working with the House Committee to probe the uprising. CNN reported last month that Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, had quietly testified before the House selection committee in response to a subpoena in January. The committee considered wonder Pence CNN previously reported.

Pence’s farewell to Trump came at the end of his speech, in which he mainly focused on criticizing the administration of President Joe Biden.

The former vice president announced approval for a coronavirus vaccine developed during Trump’s time in office, claiming that the effort to develop and distribute the vaccine was “a medical miracle.” He said he was vaccinated.

But he said Biden was wrong when he tried to enforce vaccinations, forcing health workers who “bathe in the sea without armor for a year” now to “choose between vaccines and their jobs.”

Pence also criticized Biden for his plans – following his 2020 campaign pledge – to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court to take the seat of retired Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. He said Biden is choosing a court nominee “based first on the candidate’s race and gender.”

“If the radical left doesn’t end its obsession with identity politics, it will tear this country apart,” Pence said.



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