The riot was on when the first state’s votes were not turned back to the state legislature to reconsider.
Pence had told Trump the night before that he was not going to return the votes to the states, according to one report I read. But the rioters were waiting until it actually started to happen. Consider the timing.
I believe at this time the incursion was instigated by Antifa, with the intention of leading some Trump supporters along by the charge. It was a setup, and the Capitol cops were in on it. I believe Ashli was picked out as a logical victim by Antifa. Just temporary conclusions I have come to.
Sending the votes back to the states was the next step after the Supreme Court went AWOL.
It is not a step at all, next or otherwise. The Vice President has zero authority nor even a role to do that. Zero. That is reality. In fact no entity has the power to send things "back to the states" at the moment. If the Electors were invalidated, Congress would have been in charge of electing the President and Vice President. The role of the States was completely over with at that point.
If different Electors were to be appointed, that is something entirely within the purview of the State legislatures. They did not do so. He had one slate of Electors before him, and his only role is to have the opened and counted. That's it. The Constitution says he "shall" do so. Period. Any parliamentary objections he would rule on as a the president officer. That's it. He cannot make any declarations on his own. And even then, any rulings he made could have been appealed and overturned.
It is time to stop spreading misinformation on what powers and authority the Vice President has and also to stop smearing Pence personally for "refusing" to do something he could not even do. We should have more Constitutional knowledge and political savvy than this around here.