Politico reports:
Vice President Mike Pence has the unilateral power to decide the outcome of the 2020 election, according to the latest filing in a lawsuit brought by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other Republicans mounting a last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“Under the Constitution, he has the authority to conduct that proceeding as he sees fit,” Gohmert argues. “He may count elector votes certified by a state’s executive, or he can prefer a competing slate of duly qualified electors. He may ignore all electors from a certain state. That is the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution.”
Gohmert’s latest submission argues that Pence, through his lawyers, is minimizing and even trivializing his role — relegating himself to a position as a “glorified envelope-opener in chief.”
Read the full article.
Perhaps this doesn’t need saying but the idea that the sitting VP gets to decide which votes he’s going to count is INSANE.https://t.co/53FQ8J6z3R
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 1, 2021
POTUS was not pleased that DoJ responded on Pence’s behalf in the Gohmert et al lawsuit trying to expand the VP’s procedural role on Jan 6, per 3 ppl briefed. POTUS called Pence this AM to express some surprise about it; he has been more vocal with others about his displeasure.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 1, 2021