That’s absurd. He clearly is NOT right at all. First of all, he completely mischaracterizes what Pence was being asked to do. The argument about what authority Pence had or did not have aside, no one was asking Pence to just unilaterally make Trump the President, as Rubio falsely claims. As for Pence’s proper role here, unless you believe the 12th Amendment is only ceremonial, there is a REASON it says what it does, and it clearly gives the Vice President some level of ability to reject improperly submitted electoral votes. For one thing, why would the same section give the Congress the authority to overrule the Vice President if he had no discretionary power?
There would have been nothing improper about Pence simply returning the questionable electoral votes to those states for verification, unless you believe as many leftists do that the Vice President’s role is only ceremonial. If you do believe that, then I would have to ask what other parts of the Constitution you deem merely “ceremonial?”
1. Please read the 12th Amendment and tell me where it says the Vice President and Congress have the authority to do anything OTHER THAN simply count the certified electoral votes from all the states. Where did that statement about ":the same section" giving Congress the authority to overrule the Vice President come from? It says no such thing.
2. The 12th Amendment was designed to deal with a situation where no candidate had a majority of the electoral votes. That's why it was adopted after the contested 1796 and 1800 elections and ratified in 1804. So in a case where there are only two candidates and no state submits any contested slate of electors -- yes, the process laid out in the 12th Amendment IS ceremonial.
There would have been nothing improper about Pence simply returning the questionable electoral votes to those states for verification.
1. Who would the VP return the "questionable electoral votes" to? He'd have to send them back to the person or office that submitted them in the first place. Why they heck would the person who sent them even acknowledge receiving them back? The only valid response to him would be: "What the hell is the matter with you, moron? Can't you read what I already sent you?"
2. There absolutely WOULD be something improper about the VP returning electoral votes to a state like that. The states just submitted electoral votes in accordance with the specific requirements laid out in the U.S. Constitution. The Vice President answers to the states, not vice versa, and therefore he has no authority to tell them to do anything with the electoral votes they already certified on the date they were obligated to certify them.