Trump falsely claims again Pence had right to overturn 2020 election

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, has expressed that he wanted former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election. In a statement that slammed the recent efforts to bring reforms to the Electoral Count Act, Trump repeated his false claim that Pence had the power to do so. 

He said, “Actually, 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. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” 

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Trump’s claim is that the group of lawyers who’re working to reform the Electoral Count Act proves that Pence indeed had the power to overturn the election. While the Act is vague, it is clear on the point of the Vice President’s role being ceremonial and not including the power to overturn a presidential election result. 

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On January 5, a day before the Capitol riots, Donald Trump had tweeted – from his since-deleted account – that Pence had the power to overturn the elections. He said, “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” 

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Further, at a rally in Georgia, he’d expressed hope that Pence would come through for them and that even while the insurrection at Capitol Hill was underway Trump kept suggesting that it was in Pence’s hands to do something about the results. 

Currently, Trump is under the microscope due to the Senate committee formed to investigate the January 6 riots. However, he’s more than once hinted at a possible return for the 2024 Presidential race. He was heard proclaiming himself as the 47th President of the US while playing golf with his friends. In another instance, he offered to pardon those being investigated for the Jan 6 riots, if he were voted back into power.