Vice President Mike Pence said he doesn’t have unilateral power to block congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
“I do not believe that the founders of our country intended to invest in the vice president with the unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the joint session of Congress,” Pence said in a letter released Wednesday.
“I took an oath to support and defend the constitution,” he said.
Pence’s letter rebuffs appeals from President Trump to intercede on his behalf.
The vice president’s office released the letter just moments before the US Senate convened to debate and ratify Biden’s electoral college win.
“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral vote should be counted and which should not.”
“I took an oath to support and defend the constitution which ended with the words, `So help me God,'” Pence said.
“I want to assure the American people I will keep that oath to them and I will keep the oath I made to Almighty God.”
He said under federal law it’s members of Congress who are authorized to review the evidence and resolve disputes through a democratic process regarding the presidential vote.
“Our founders were deeply skeptical of concentrations of power and created a Republic based on separation of powers and checks and balances under the constitution,” Pence said in the detailed letter.
“Vesting the vice president with unilateral authority to decide presidential contests would be entirely antithetical to that design.”
Pence, who described himself as a “student of history who loves the constitution”, said “no vice president in American history has ever asserted such authority” to try to challenge or overturn the results of presidential election in what has been a ministerial proceeding.
“Instead vice presidents presiding over Joint Sessions have uniformly followed the Electoral Count Act, conducting the proceedings in an orderly manner even where the count resulted in the defeat of their party or their own candidacy,” he said.
During the session, Sen. Ted Cruz joined an objection to the congressional counting of Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes for President-elect Biden — touching off up to two hours of debate in each chamber.
“It is an objection for six of the contesting states,” Cruz said.