{"id":47594,"date":"2022-02-05T04:26:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T04:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47594"},"modified":"2022-02-05T04:26:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T04:26:05","slug":"pence-trump-wrong-to-say-2020-election-could-be-overturned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47594","title":{"rendered":"Pence: Trump \u2018wrong\u2019 to say 2020 election could be overturned"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead css-1wt8oh6\"><em>Former Republican vice president\u2019s address to conservative group is his most forceful response yet as his feud with Trump escalates.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"125.46052631579\">\n<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence has directly rebutted Donald Trump\u2019s false claims that he somehow could have overturned the results of the 2020 election in the United States, saying that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/6\/4\/pence-does-not-see-eye-to-eye-with-trump-on-january-6-us-riot\">the former president was simply \u201cwrong\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a speech to a gathering of the conservative Federalist Society in Florida on Friday, Pence addressed Trump\u2019s intensifying efforts this week to advance the false narrative that, as vice president, he had the unilateral power to prevent President Joe Biden from taking office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Trump is wrong,\u201d Pence said. \u201cI had no right to overturn the election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pence\u2019s declaration marked his most forceful response yet to Trump, who has spent his post-presidency stoking the lie that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/1\/6\/pro-donald-trump-protesters-storm-us-capitol\">the 2020 campaign was stolen from him<\/a>. And it comes as Pence begins laying the groundwork for a potential run for president in 2024, which could put him in direct competition with his former boss, who is also teasing a comeback run.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship between the two men took on a new dynamic this week as Trump escalated his attacks on Pence.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"770\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kX58vEFY3X0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Tuesday, Trump said the committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol should instead probe \u201cwhy Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval\u201d. And on Sunday, he blasted Pence, falsely declaring that \u201che could have overturned the Election!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vice presidents play only a ceremonial role in the counting of Electoral College votes, and any attempt to interfere in the count would have represented an extraordinary violation of the law and an assault on the democratic process.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Dark day in history\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Pence, in his remarks on Friday to the group of lawyers in Lake Buena Vista, described <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/1\/6\/a-year-later-trumps-role-in-us-capitol-riot-still-being-probed\">January 6, 2021<\/a>, as \u201ca dark day in the history of the United States Capitol\u201d and framed his actions that day as in line with his duty as a constitutional conservative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe American people must know that we will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise,\u201d he told the group on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that, under Article II Section One of the Constitution, \u201celections are conducted at the state level, not by the Congress\u201d and that \u201cthe only role of Congress with respect to the Electoral College is to open and count votes submitted and certified by the states. No more, no less.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He went on to call out those who have insisted that is not the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,\u201d he added. \u201cUnder the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The audience applauded Pence\u2019s line about beating the Democrats in the upcoming presidential election, but remained silent when Pence said earlier that \u201cTrump is wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1294957\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1294957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-1294957\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1000-6.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C433\" alt=\"Mike Pence\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\">Pence reads the final certification of Electoral College votes cast in the November 2020 presidential election, which was won by Democrat Joseph Biden [File: J Scott Applewhite\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n<p>Pence was inside the Capitol on January 6, presiding over the joint session of Congress to certify the presidential election, when a mob of Trump\u2019s supporters violently smashed inside, assaulting police officers and hunting down legislators.<\/p>\n<p>Pence, who released a letter moments before the session got underway that made clear he had no authority to overturn the will of the voters, was rushed to safety as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/1\/15\/us-says-capitol-mob-meant-to-capture-and-assassinate-officials\">some rioters chanted \u201cHang Mike Pence!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The former vice president, in his remarks Friday, acknowledged the lingering anger among many in Trump\u2019s base, even as he said it was time \u201cto focus on the future\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is, there\u2019s more at stake than our party or political fortunes,\u201d he said. \u201cMen and women, if we lose faith in the Constitution, we won\u2019t just lose elections \u2014 we\u2019ll lose our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Republican vice president\u2019s address to conservative group is his most forceful response yet as his feud with Trump escalates.Former Vice President Mike Pence has directly rebutted Donald Trump\u2019s false claims that he somehow could have overturned the results of the 2020 election in the United States, saying that the former president was simply \u201cwrong\u201d.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}