On Wednesday, when Congress conducts what is often a ceremonial responsibility of opening and counting certificates of electoral votes, Vice Presid
On Wednesday, when Congress conducts what is often a ceremonial responsibility of opening and counting certificates of electoral votes, Vice President Mike Pence will play a fragile position.
As president of the Senate, Mr. Pence is predicted to preside over the professional forma certification of the Electoral Faculty vote rely in entrance of a joint session of Congress. It’s a constitutionally prescribed, televised second during which Mr. Pence will identify the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Joseph R. Biden Jr.
It’s also a second a few of Mr. Pence’s advisers have been bracing themselves for ever because the president misplaced the election and stepped up his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
One individual near Mr. Pence described Wednesday’s duties as gut-wrenching, saying that he would wish to stability the president’s misguided beliefs about authorities along with his personal years of preaching deference to the Structure.
After almost a dozen Republican senators mentioned they plan to object to the certification of the vote on Wednesday, the vice chairman’s chief of employees, Marc Quick, issued a fastidiously worded assertion supposed to not anger anybody.
“The vice chairman welcomes the efforts of members of the Home and Senate to make use of the authority they’ve beneath the legislation to boost objections and convey ahead proof earlier than the Congress and the American folks on Jan. 6,” he mentioned.
The truth that Mr. Pence’s position is sort of solely scripted by these parliamentarians just isn’t anticipated to ease a uncommon second of stress between himself and the president, who has come to imagine Mr. Pence’s position shall be akin to that of chief justice, an arbiter who performs a job within the final result. In actuality, it will likely be extra akin to the presenter opening the Academy Award envelope and studying the identify of the film that received Greatest Image, with no say in figuring out the winner.
And with simply over two weeks left within the administration, Mr. Pence is prone to assembly the destiny that he has efficiently averted for 4 years: being publicly attacked by the president.