Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Former US vice president Mike Pence has hit out at the idea he could have overturned the result of last year’s election result Stephen M. Dowell via PA Images

Pence says idea of overturning presidential election result was ‘un-American’

He has hit out at former president Donald Trump who put pressure on him to reverse the result of last year’s vote.

FORMER US VICE president Mike Pence has defended his role in certifying the results of the 2020 election, saying he’s “proud” of what he did on 6 January and declaring there’s “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

Pence, a potential 2024 presidential contender, delivered his strongest rebuttal to date of former president Donald Trump’s continued insistence that he could unilaterally overturn the results of the last election, even though the Constitution granted him no such power.

A mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January in a bid to halt the certification process and transition of power, with some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”

Pence, in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library yesterday, directly addressed those who continue to blame him for Trump’s defeat to now-President Joe Biden, who won the Electoral College on a 306-232 vote.

“Now, there are those in our party who believe that, in my position as presiding officer over the joint session, that I possessed the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states,” Pence said.

“But the Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress.

“And the truth is,” he continued, “there’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”

Pence said he will “always be proud that we did our part, on that tragic day, to reconvene the Congress and fulfil our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”

It was Pence’s most overt attempt to date to distance himself from Trump’s rhetoric about the election while painting himself as an heir to Trump’s mantle and key to his accomplishments in office.

Trump has continued to insist that he won the November election, even though his administration’s own election experts, his attorney general, state election officials and numerous judges, including some he appointed, have repeatedly and forcefully rejected his allegations of mass voter fraud.

Pence, speaking as part of a series organised by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, repeatedly praised Trump — as he has in other speeches since leaving office — and compared him to Reagan, whom Pence has long hailed as a hero.

But he also argued that the American public needs to trust that Republicans will “always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it could be politically expedient to do otherwise”.

“Now I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election. I can relate. I was on the ballot,” he added. “But you know, there’s more at stake than our party and our political fortunes in this moment.”

road-to-majority-convention Mike Pence has been attacked by other Republicans over his lack of loyalty to Donald Trump Stephen M. Dowell Stephen M. Dowell

Trump was impeached after 6 January on a charge of inciting an insurrection, and he was acquitted by the Senate the next month, after leaving office.

More than 500 people face federal charges in the insurrection, including a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group who pleaded guilty this week.

Pence’s appearance yesterday in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 800 at the hilltop library was his latest in recent months as Pence considers a White House bid.

He took a brief pause from the public stage after leaving office in January, but he kicked off a series of appearances in April in early-voting states, looking to sharpen his conservative profile for voters more familiar with him standing in Trump’s shadow.

Earlier this month, in New Hampshire, Pence defended the Trump administration record but also appeared to put some distance between himself and the former president, saying, “I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye” on the Jan 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Last week, Pence was booed and jeered during a speech at the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road To Majority conference in Florida — a reflection of lingering resentments in some wings of the party over what they see as a lack of loyalty from the former vice president.

Pence entered yesterday to a standing ovation, but there were mixed views about whether he would be a good choice on the presidential ticket in 2024.

Joseph Quiroz, 45, an accountant from Pasadena, said he would like to see Pence run and considered him his top choice at this juncture, largely because of his experience in Washington and as a former governor.

Quiroz, a Republican, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but believed “the best thing would be a new face”.

Bob Refer, 72, a Republican and a retired policeman from San Diego, said he liked Pence. But, he said, “I think he’s too nice a guy. He’s not forceful enough”.

While Refer liked Trump and his readiness to take on a fight, he was dubious about another run for the billionaire businessman in 2024. But he quickly added: “I’d like someone like him (Trump).”

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

View 15 comments
Close
15 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Beattie
    Favourite James Beattie
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 2:31 PM

    They have been self harming since 1690

    242
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Molloy
    Favourite Tom Molloy
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:53 PM

    @James Beattie: In fundamentalists groupings it becomes a competition to prove loyalty through out-extreme-ing competitors in the group. Sorry for inventing a word.

    68
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mjhint
    Favourite Mjhint
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 5:25 PM

    @Tom Molloy: this is also the essence of fascism.
    “Fascism has a built in self destruction philosophy”
    Christopher Hitchens

    29
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James McErlain
    Favourite James McErlain
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 10:39 PM

    @James Beattie: Have you forgotten 1798? A revolution led by the modern day loyalists’ forefathers, who fought alongside their Catholic neighbours to get rid of the British. The Orange Order was created by the British to divide the Presbyterian & Catholic people of Ireland & prevent any future joint rebellions.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Beattie
    Favourite James Beattie
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 2:33 PM

    Take from a Twitter post. Sums it up

    “Poots has been ditched by the DUP. He then carried out the move which loyalist stakeholders had been demanding of the DUP. Then to save face, the DUP are trying to out-Poots Poots by bringing down stormont. Jeffery doesn’t want Poots to be the hero”

    175
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Justin Gillespie
    Favourite Justin Gillespie
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:42 PM

    @James Beattie: Nail on the head. This is all internal DUP fighting.

    89
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Angela McCarthy
    Favourite Angela McCarthy
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 4:56 PM

    @James Beattie: Thats one assessment James and a fair one, but I would add like the above article suggests – the DUP is privately quaking at opinion polls north and south and if they cant unite unionism behind their party, they will be dreading the coming election. If and when they refuse to nominate a Deputy First Minister to pair up with Michelle O’Neill, they will finally be left as past emperors with no clothes and many ordinary unionists might well ask them why they contested the elections in the first place.

    All my attention now is on Doug Beatty and his next move. He has an open goal here to become the next leader of unionism, but will he take it and promise to get the executive up and running again and should publicly declare now that if SF captures the greater vote and the UUP comes in second place, that his party will nominate a Deputy First Minister.

    He desperately needs now to put a huge distance between his party and the DUP. Unfortunately, he seems to be caught off guard by the DUP stunts of the last two days and wasn’t prepared. He needs to pump up the volume now and become vocal with real steady leadership for ordinary unionists who can see the DUP have completely lost the plot.

    50
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Justin Gillespie
    Favourite Justin Gillespie
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 6:01 PM

    @Angela McCarthy: Beatrice can’t declare his willingness to work with SF or he will lose a large tranche of voters to either the DUP or TUV.
    The sad fact is that a significant number of unionist voters will not stomach a SF First Minister and no unionist party can risk alienating them.
    It’s a sobering judgment on the peace process that that is how things are but facts are facts.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Justin Gillespie
    Favourite Justin Gillespie
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 6:37 PM

    @Justin Gillespie: Beattie not Beatrice, bloody autocorrect…

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Gorman
    Favourite James Gorman
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:08 PM

    DUP just being DUP
    Pulling wardrobe down on top of themselves

    88
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Egan
    Favourite Patrick Egan
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:20 PM

    Hardly either the first or last time the DUP throw their dodo out of the pram.

    68
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Rowan
    Favourite James Rowan
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:46 PM

    Delusional Unionst Party aka DUP

    65
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hugh McCann
    Favourite Hugh McCann
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 4:45 PM

    Dinosaurs Under Pressure

    54
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Moran
    Favourite Declan Moran
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 5:30 PM

    @Hugh McCann: best description I’ve ever seen Hugh

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eoin Roche
    Favourite Eoin Roche
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:11 PM

    The most badly led and mostly politically inept political party, of consequence, in all of post-war Europe. You wouldn’t actually be this bad at politics and strategy if you were a blind old dog living on a remote farm.

    110
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bernhard Rohrer
    Favourite Bernhard Rohrer
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 4:27 PM

    FFG in the Republic and Unionists in the North are deposing themselves by sheer inpetitude.

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas Meaney
    Favourite Thomas Meaney
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:06 PM

    Where’s the logic in nailing your own coffin shut?

    73
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Moran
    Favourite Declan Moran
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 4:42 PM

    Hopefully an act they won’t recover from. Sick of the serial say no to everything party

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Billy Davies
    Favourite Billy Davies
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 4:24 PM

    Not the sharpest tools in the shed are they?

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute pat seery
    Favourite pat seery
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 3:59 PM

    Jeffrey will Fall on His Sword like Boris will do nex week

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute camio55
    Favourite camio55
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 5:51 PM

    You really have to hope that both the DUP/SF fade away and more enlightened parties emerge to bridge the divide. . Both parties have in the past number of years brought down the NI Executive for their own partisan reasons. They have demonstrated that they are incapable of governing NI together. They live in the past where trimhant rhetoric/mantras are the norm.
    NI has the capacity to excel if it can take advantage of its unique position within the UK and its single market status within in the EU.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Karl Phillips
    Favourite Karl Phillips
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 5:38 PM

    That mob don’t want to share, never watched to share, and now have taken the ball and gone home Delusional Unionist Party love it.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Antaine O'Labhradha
    Favourite Antaine O'Labhradha
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 9:57 PM

    Unionism is in Canute mode. At partition, they were up to their knees in the waves. Now, the waves are up to their waists. And still, when the waves are up to their zygomatic arches, they’ll be telling them to begone. What they need now is a leader who will talk to carve out the position as part of Irish society that they want for themselves. They were a political minority when they gerrymandered partition. They’re doubly so now. The fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of Irish people, north and south, want reunification of our country and our people and not to be ruled by the British. As a minority, unionism does not have the right to force British identity or foreign rule on unconsenting Irish people. Certainly, we Irish can, should and will respect their identity. But the constitutional link with the UK has to go, as that option does not command majority support. After negotiations, Orange parades which respectfully celebrate Protestantism [without the usual vile anti-Catholicism and anti-Irishness and the up-to-their-necks-in-fenian-blood hatred for their neighbours] can be a means of carving out their niche in a united Ireland. Perhaps we could get to a stage where Catholics could actually watch these things with no sense of hatred emanating from the marchers and hangers-on. Perhaps Catholics and Protestants here might finally learn to live together in peace, equality and [when permitted by the capitalist economic cycle] prosperity, just like they have done in the rest of the world. There are myriad non-constitutional ways in which their affinity with House Windsor can be facilitated and Charlie can even have her pad in Hillsborough. Imagine how it will be when finally, a person’s religion is an incidental irrelevance and, over time, ceases to be a divisor. But they can no longer keep the blinkers on and think everything’s going their way. It isn’t and won’t be, because of demographic change and democracy. Even old Canute had the sense to get out of the waves before he drowned!

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dan Duggan
    Favourite Dan Duggan
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 6:29 PM

    Thats was just a collection of statements.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Raymond Dixon
    Favourite Raymond Dixon
    Report
    Feb 4th 2022, 6:27 PM

    Well said. There are a pair of them in it.

    3
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds