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"Trump had been talking weeks about hoping to get a consideration to challenge the vote."

I mean, do you hear yourself? The mere idea that Trump would wait for someone else in government to do something before doing it himself ... lol. But let's just dissect your assertion at face value, for what it's worth:

Who was properly responsible for the clarion call to investigate the 2020 election fraud? President Donald J. Trump:
The authority, and the responsibility for rejecting elector slates, and demanding state legislatures send new elector slates consistent with investigations into electoral fraud, resided solely with President Trump.
There is no Constitutional mechanism to permit the Vice-President to make such a claim. That power -- if it indeed exists -- lies solely with the Office of the President. Any such attempt by the VP would be duly and properly ignored.
As President Lincoln once promised, leaning into Congressman James Alley, "I am the President of the United States, clothed with immense power, and I expect you to procure those votes." What Lincoln didn't say, was: "Vice-President Johnson is clothed with immense power, and I expect him to procure those votes."
In April 2020, President Trump threatened to dismiss Congress over blocking him from recess appointments. President Trump believed he had that power -- the exact same power he would have used to remand the presented elector's slates back to each state's legislature -- and Trump believed that power was invested in him alone. President Trump didn't call VP Pence and say, "Hey Mike, you tell them you're shutting down Congress because I can't get my recess appointments."