John C. Eastman-
In his letter of the morning of January 6, Vice President Mike Pence asserted that “[s]ome believe that as Vice President, [he] should be able to accept or reject votes unilaterally.” He repeated the claim later in the letter: “vesting the vice president with unilateral authority to decide presidential election contests would be entirely antithetical to [the] design” of separation of powers and checks and balances given to us by our founders. And then a third time, he wrote: “I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress.” And a fourth: “It is my considered judgment 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.”
With all due respect to the vice president, that is not what the president asked when all was said and done. But before I elaborate on that below, let’s explore just what constitutional authority the vice president has, by way of some hypothetical scenarios.
Suppose a Democrat governor in a state Trump clearly won—North Carolina, perhaps, or Kansas—were to certify the Biden slate of electors and transmit that certificate and the subsequent electoral votes to the president of the Senate (that is, the vice president of the United States). Republican legislators in the state howl about the fraud, but because the governor refuses to call the Legislature into special session, they can do nothing about it except send a letter notifying the vice president of the fraud. Is it really the case that nothing can be done?
Congress has asserted in section 15 of the Electoral Count Act of 1887 that it has the power to reject electoral votes if both houses determine that they were not “regularly given.” Yet there is no direct constitutional support for that assertion of power. The 12th Amendment merely assigns an observational role to the House and Senate during the Joint Session of Congress. Specifically, the relevant language of 12th Amendment provides that “the president of the Senate [that is, the vice president] shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted” (emphasis added). The actual counting of the electoral votes is in the passive voice. However, because the only affirmative role conveyed by the active voice—to open the certificates—is assigned to the vice president, legal scholars and political figures throughout history have contended that the counting is assigned to the vice president as well.
The issue then is whether the power to “open” and to “count” the electoral votes is merely ministerial, as the vice president claimed in his letter of January 6, or whether it implies any power to determine the legitimacy of the votes. Here, another example—one rooted in two historical precedents—will help. more here
TRAITOR AND COWARD!
…the picture of Pence at the Fakeaguration with the Clintons and Bush being all chummy told me everything I need to know about his behavior that day.
Liar, traitor and backstabber. Judas your name is pence.
30 pences of silver
We will not forget. Your pompous ass is toast!
He can blather all day, but we see who he is now. Traitor? Yes.
What an asshole Pence is for following the Constitution!
His beady-eyed face reveals the same wormy character as Dr. Anthony Faustus. After all, it was Pence who appointed Fauci and Birx to the Covid Cabal.
OMG! FAUCI IS BACK!
…never forget too that they shot an unarmed woman who posed zero threat to him in the neck just to make a point, and not the reasonable fear standard the REST of us are held to when using deadly force.
Never forget that.
All bills come due.
And his will be quite large.
Fuck Pence. He had the chance to permit a 1/2 dozen states whose legislators specifically asked him to allow them to publicly investigate the allegations of voter fraud by simply not counting on the 6th, their electoral votes.
The governors in these states refused to permit special sessions in Dec but in Jan, these legislatures were coming back to work. It’s the fucking presidential election dipshit and you couldn’t muster the juice to let the allegations get any investigation??
You are forever a fucking traitor. Fuck you and burn in hell.
Nobody can convince me this rat bastard wasn’t Trump’s inner circle leaker.
I don’t care much for that chickenshit albino look he has either.
He’s nothing but a loser who’s desperate to be accepted by the scumbag insiders so he’s willing to be their pet snake.
He’s nothing but a bottom feeder period!
In cruder terms he can be labeled a ambitious suck-ass.
Et tu Brutus?
Homely POS! Poor Karen!
Let me use history to possibly explain Trump’s VP “choice”…
At the 1944 Democratic Convention, I was “given” Harry Truman as my VP, replacing Henry Wallace. Coincidentally, I served only three months of my 4th Term.
Oh, wait. Who is Biden’s VP?
As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree in principle with what Pence said. It would set a dangerous precedant if the vice president were able to arbitrarily decide which electors to count. It would essentially turn the process into something more akin to monarchy than what we have. Imagine Biden using this power in 2016 to elect Hillary. I believe that the intent behind this obscure part of the constitution was to give the VP the authority force some sort of hearing or review in the event that electors are chosen fraudulently. If our congress was actually representative of the people and this statute interpreted how I see it, an incident like this wouldve been limited to a single state and a non partisan hearing would commence at the behest of Pence. Evidence of fraud presented and the electors negated. Unfortunately, this was a plan organized and carried out by an entire party, most of its opposition and every failsafe including the one described here, was compromised by partisanship, propaganda, greed and corruption and likely extortion and intimidation.
You got it wrong Nick,
He was asked by the states in question who sent two sets of electors to recertify. All he had to do was allow that to take place. perfectly constitutional and within the rules.
Obviously, in this case, the 12th Amendment would not give Pence the authority to reject ballots because he would be voting himself back into the job of Veep
Thats a conflict of interest the Constitution would never tolerate. But that wasnt what was requested. Several states asked that Pence remand the votes back to the State Legislatures to resolve the conflict. This is exactly what the Constitution would prefer
Pence was both a mole and a monitor in the Trump Administration. Trump’s White House was filled with traitors.
DJT was amazing to be able to lead the country with all the crap surrounding him. Future events will prove how lucky America was these past four years.
Pence the hypocritical wanna-be christian, was told by his fellow backstabbing GOPe members to get rid of Trump. The only reason he was VP to begin with was to stymie everything Trump tried to do, and report back to his real bosses. How many of those useless shitbirds on the cabinet were his suggestions?
Hope he choked to death on Chinese cock.
America’s 21st Century “Quisling”. The original let in the Nazi’s.
Pence let in the Chicom’s.
Just suppose at another time, in another election for another President’s second term another Vice President is tasked with a very (exact) situation, and there is partisan pressure on her to not simply open and count, but question or reject certain electors because of election “irregularities”, what do you reckon she’ll do, Mr. Pence……….?
FDR in Hell, thank God that they replaced Henry Wallace with Harry Truman. Henry Wallace was a Pinko and a communist sympathizer and who knows what kind of damage he could’ve done to this country and the entire world if he was still VP when you croaked. I’d say historically that we dodged a really big bullet when Harry Truman became President and not Henry Wallace.
@Nick
“As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree in principle with what Pence said. It would set a dangerous precedant (sic)if the vice president were able to arbitrarily decide which electors to count.”
As it was, Pence arbitrarily decided which electors to count. Rather than sending it back to the states to wrangle it out, he refused to acknowledge the states’ authority to select the president via the electoral college.
Determining the honesty or not of a presidential election and which electors to vote for the winnner is the job of the state legislatures, not the VP. Pence interfered and denied them that authority.
Even if it takes 6 months to do it, charges of election fraud should be investigated and audited and an honest assessment arrived at prior to counting any electoral votes.
I would be in favor of an amendment that would allow a new president to be seated anytime between Jan. 20 and March 31. If no fraud was detected and all state legislatures agree, the inauguration could happen as early as Jan. 20. If not, continue investigating, auditing, and recounting till we get an airtight and accurate count.
Today, with so many ways to steal an election, we have to allow the validation process to run its course.
Pence is the “business end” of the bottle from the feminine product.., known as “Mid Summers Night Eve”
We’ve had enough of you pennies
Go ahead run for president in 2024 I dare you.
We’re so tired of investing ‘time and emotion’ in certain people…only to be disappointed.
Pence is one of them.
Sessions also comes to mind.
Who shot Ashli Babbitt?
^^^^^
None of your damn business, troublemaker.
Yep, I agree with Gin.
Pence was the inner sanctum leak. That’s why no matter how many times Trump set up people or got rid of leakers it continued- because Pence was their inside guy the whole time, hiding behind his pearly white ‘christian’ gauze.
A true Judas.
Pence was and is a swamp creature. When and how he was compromised by the commie left we may never know….how much he was paid we may never know but make no mistake about it…he DID have the power to STOP THE DEMS from stealing the White House and REFUSED TO DO SO. The man needs to be FIRST IN LINE for the gallows. He’s the WORST kind of enemy…the enemy from within.
keep sucking gro-biden ****, bitch