I believe Pence’s job was prior to Jan 6 to lobby state legislatures that had issues to elect competing electors and send to congress. Absent competing electors to count or dispute there was nothing for Pence to arbitrate on Jan 6.
Greg Kelly pointed out he still. Was within his right that day to object- it was his show last night, might be able to see it online. He spelled it out better than I am here.
According to Trump and ,ayers, if there was evidence of fraud, pence had the right to send the votes back to the states tk,have them check the votes again and work it out
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-responds-pence-overturn-election
It is probable that Cruz and the other fella were trying to make this point when the Capitol police rushed outside to let in the protestors to disrupt the process Cruz was trying to ensure.
I don’t know much about the whole process, but I’ve seen argument for and agaisnt pence having the right to send it back or not. The ,aw it’s based on is inexact, and the left have tried to argue it says somehting it doesn’t, once again, but now they are trying to nu,life thst law to prevent any future vp from certifying the election