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US presidential election 2020
WorldUnited States & Canada

Donald Trump puts fresh pressure on Mike Pence to reject Joe Biden’s Electoral College certification

  • ‘All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN,’ Trump tweeted
  • The president’s tweets came just hours before Pence prepares to preside over Wednesday’s congressional tally of Electoral College votes

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US President Donald Trump with Vice-President Mike Pence. File photo: Bloomberg
POLITICO

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Quint Forgey on politico.com on January 6, 2021.

President Donald Trump applied new pressure on Vice-President Mike Pence to interfere with the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Wednesday – despite Pence’s inability to alter the election’s outcome and the overall futility of the effort by some Republican lawmakers.

“States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning. “All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”

In fact, Pence cannot send the votes back –he has no power to do so under either the US Constitution or congressional statute.

02:09

US Democrat Raphael Warnock wins Senate race in Georgia after knife-edge race

US Democrat Raphael Warnock wins Senate race in Georgia after knife-edge race
In a subsequent, all-caps message, the president appeared to reference the two Georgia Senate run-off elections that took place on Tuesday – one of which resulted in Democrat Raphael Warnock defeating incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, nearly flipping the balance of power in a chamber Republicans have controlled since 2014.

Democrat Jon Ossoff led Republican David Perdue in the state’s other Senate race by more than 16,000 ballots as of Wednesday morning, with about 98 per cent of the expected vote already tallied.

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