The Hill reports:
Republican-leaning pollster Rasmussen invoked a quote attributed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a Twitter thread Sunday suggesting Vice President Pence could attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Supporters of President Trump have made similar arguments that Pence, as president of the Senate, has the power to reject Electoral College results.
However, the theory is based on a misreading of U.S. code that simply authorizes the vice president to call on states to submit their electoral votes if they do not do so by the fourth Wednesday in December, according to The Washington Post.
Come January 6th:
(Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything. – Stalin)
“Come January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence will be presented with the sealed certificates containing the ballots of the presidential electors.
1/4
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
At that moment, the Presidency will be in his hands.
And there is nothing stopping Pence, under the (plenary and unappealable) authority vested in him as President of the Senate, from declining to open and count the certificates from the six disputed states.
2/4
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
If they are (as more than 70% of Republicans believe) certificates from non-electors appointed via voter fraud, why should he open & count them?”
If the votes of all 7 contested states are registered as zero, President Trump will have 232 votes, Joe Biden will have 222.
3/4
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
Per the 12th Amendment: “[T]he votes shall then be counted[.] … The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President[.]”
Reader comments?
4/4
More here – https://t.co/ehnnu84Lgi
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
Oh, look: here’s a polling company doing their part to subvert democracy, violate the Constitution, and pander to the most corrupt man ever to squat in our @WhiteHouse. If anyone ever believed @Rasmussen_Poll was an unbiased source of objective polling, think again.
— Lorraine Devon Wilke (@LorraineDWilke) December 28, 2020
Rasmussen Reports is telling Mike Pence to take some tips from Josef Stalin on how to steal an election. This is the absolute state of American conservatism. pic.twitter.com/qyLv1nIvEK
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) December 28, 2020
Promoting sedition and the destruction of democracy for Twitter clicks. You must be so proud, Rasmussen. History will remember. https://t.co/ce9V2iIhdR
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) December 28, 2020
LOL. The usual partisan hacks are feigning upset that our analysis & commentary piece from Alexander Macris yesterday included a top quote from Stalin. Well it does. The hacks don’t want you to READ that commentary. They’d much rather finger us as Staninists. What a sad bunch. https://t.co/MjSlkFQyP8 pic.twitter.com/G4OuGwPKP9
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 28, 2020