Former Vice President Mike Pence rebuked former President Donald Trump’s assertion that he could have overturned the result of the 2020 election in a Friday speech.
Pence made the statement during an address to the Federalist Society, days after Trump attacked him for refusing to hold up the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in January 2021. Trump had reiterated his claim Sunday that Pence could have overturned 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,” Pence said. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”
US President-elect Donald Trump adresses a CNN journalist (Jim Acosta, unseen)and refuses to answer his question during a press conference on January 11, 2017 in New York. Donald Trump is holding his first news conference in nearly six months Wednesday, amid explosive allegations over his ties to Russia, a little more than a week before his inauguration. (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
“Under 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,” he said.
“The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone,” he added. “And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
Trump argued in a statement Sunday that Pence had merely not had the will to stop the certification. (RELATED: ‘Nothing Is Off Limits’ When It Comes To Trump Testifying, Capitol Riot Commission Chair Says)
“What they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,” Trump said at the time. “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!”
Trump’s relationship with Pence turned cold in the final days of their administration as the vice president refused to get on board with Trump’s push to overturn the results of the election. Pence did not have the authority as vice president to block the certification of Biden’s win, but both Trump and his supporters urged him to do so regardless.