Former President Donald Trump says his vice president could have overturned the 2020 election, but according to a new poll, most Republicans disagree.
According to the Quinnipiac survey, 52 percent of self-identified Republicans say they side with former Vice President Mike Pence in the question of whether he had the constitutional power to overturn the 2020 election. Just over one-third of Republicans (36 percent) say they side with Trump’s argument.
The issue was a major one in the events that led to the attack on the nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump that day tweeted that Pence had the constitutional power to “send” electoral votes certified for Joe Biden “back to the states.”
“Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!” Trump tweeted.
Pence, though, released a letter hours before Trump’s tweets, arguing that “investing the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide presidential contests would be entirely antithetical” to the Founders’ design.
This year, Trump again raised the issue, saying Pence “could have overturned the Election.”
Pence commented on the issue in recent days, mentioning Trump by name.
“President Trump is wrong,” Pence said in a speech to the Federalist Society. “I had no right to overturn the election. … Frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election. And [Vice President] Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”
MIKE PENCE: “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president." pic.twitter.com/7feWD75Fq1
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) February 4, 2022
Pence said he “understands the disappointment” Republicans feel about the 2020 election. But he said, “we did our duty” on January 6. He quoted John Quincy Adams as saying, “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.”
“If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections. We’ll lose our country,” Pence said.
The former vice president said Americans “must know that we will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise.”
The 12th Amendment of the Constitution says of the process: “The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; – The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President.” The vice president is the president of the Senate.
The poll involved interviews with 1,321 Americans and was conducted from February 10 to 14. The full text of the question follows: “As you may know, former President Donald Trump said publicly that his former Vice President Mike Pence could have overturned the 2020 presidential election. Mike Pence responded by saying Donald Trump was wrong and that while he was vice president, he had no right to overturn the election. Which comes closer to your line of thinking: the view of Donald Trump or the view of Mike Pence?”
Related:
Pence Says the Bible and James Madison Convinced Him to Certify Electoral Votes in 2020 Election
Pence Splits with Trump on Jan. 6: 'Un-American' for VP to 'Choose the American President'
Pence Says He Won’t Invoke 25th Amendment to Remove Trump: ‘Now Is the Time to Heal’
Pence Says He Won't Block Biden Certification: 'I Will Keep the Oath I Made to Almighty God'
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Pool/Pool
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
