Rubio says 'vice presidents can't simply decide not to certify an election'

The hill ^ | 02/06/2022 | Mychael Schnell

[ChicagoConservative27]

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday said “vice presidents can't simply decide not to certify an election,” breaking with former President Trump after he suggested that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the ability to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Asked by moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation” if he agreed with Pence — who on Friday said he had “no right to overturn the election” — Rubio said that after examining the matter, he concluded that vice presidents do not have the power to not certify an election.

[jackibutterfly]

A little off subject - If President Trump gets reinstated, will pence be the VP? After all, President Trump chose him when he ran the second time and won, so does President Trump have to keep him, or can he choose someone else?

[Alberta's Child]

Pence has no authority to “send back” anything to a state legislature in a presidential election. If he’s standing there on January 6th with one certified set of electoral votes from a state (Pennsylvania, for example), then he’s got no reason to question them in the absence of a formal objection from a person or governing body that has the authority to speak on behalf of the state.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””Because Rubio is good on a lot of things, and this can only be helpful to Trump.”””

---

I really dislike Rubio, but the problem we have in Florida is that no Conservative Republican is willing to primary Rubio.

[Alberta's Child]

Amen, brother.

The FR servers would have melted down into a pile of rubble if VP Biden had even so much as HINTED that he’d refuse to certify a single state’s electoral votes in January 2017.

[JoSixChip]

Because we have jackasses running around

Of which you have proven yourself to be time and time again. Go get your booster and STFU.

[gw-ington]

You’ve probably noticed that even more than a year after the election, the far-lefties on the MSM are still angrily declaring that the 2020 election was “the most fair and most secure election ever.” But if senile Sleepy Joe somehow “fairly won” that “election,” then why are all far-left Dems/RINOs always so angry all the time? Shouldn’t they be happy with their election steal?

[livius]

Actually, the person I don’t like is Pence. I thought he was a weasel from the beginning, and I never knew why Trump let the GOP put him in as VP. I know he was supposed to keep the Evangelicals happy and also not be a controversial personality who would conflict with Trump, but he always looked to me like he was plotting something and kind of smirking.

[cgbg]

Leftists are never satisfied.

The revolution is everywhere and always.

That is part of being a leftist.

[iontheball]

For any presiding officer of the electoral college to deliberately not act to address a fraudulent election is treason and Pence knows it. January 6 was no magic date requiring certification and Pence knows it. He is a coward and a traitor and a disgrace to his military son.

[Alberta's Child]

Pence was asked by over 100 state legislators to wait so that the legislatures of those states could use their plenary constitutional powers to determine if those slates of electors were valid.

And that might go down as one of the dumbest public actions any political figure other than AOC has taken in my lifetime.

Election Day in 2020 was on November 3rd. The electoral votes from every state were certified around December 15th. The joint session of Congress where the electoral votes were counted was held on January 6th of 2021. If a state legislature couldn’t determine by that time whether its electoral votes were even valid, then it never would.

And if the dopes who sent that request to Pence couldn’t even convince a single state legislature to support them in their quest to determine if their state’s electors were valid, then why the hell would Pence even bother listening to them?

And keep in mind that in many (if not all) of the states in question, the legislatures ended their 2020 sessions between Election Day and January 6th anyway.

[tennmountainman]

Then why is he trying to change the law?
The VP can send it back to the States.

[TBP]

Maybe, but when teh electors are chosen improperly, they should be decertified.

The Constitution specifies that “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress...” and at least five states conducted the election in a manner NOT conducted “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,” but instead imposed by courts, election bureaucrats, or governors.

Had those electors been disqualified due to being improperly selected, President Trump would have had a majority of those remaining.

[volunbeer]

Your opinion and mine is not a popular position here but he was right in a technical sense.

I wish more people would acknowledge that the constitution says it is the job of the state legislatures to certify or not certify the elections. Period.

Congress simply accepts the results forwarded by the STATE.

With that said, Pence (and Rubio) were and are weak. I think a few congress critters were going to make a stink but the idea that somehow it would all be reversed on Jan 6th was a pipe dream.

Justice was lost at the state level. Blaming Pence for this is like blaming the kicker for not making a last second 60 yard field goal.

PS - the election was stolen. I have been adamant about it since day one. It was lost because we had no ground game and the GOPe was asleep (purposefully in my mind) at the switch. Everyone warned about vote fraud prior to the election yet nobody did a thing before or after the election.

[old curmudgeon]

Are you saying that there is no circumstance, fraud, murder, Manchurian Candidate or any criminal act that the Vice President could declare voids the election?

[Alberta's Child]

Good post.

I posted repeatedly here on FR back in November and early December of 2020, suggesting that the best course of action for the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, etc. would be for them to vote on an alternative slate of electors on December 15th and send them to Congress for the January 6th joint session.

They didn’t even have to send a slate of Trump electors. They could have picked an obscure minor party candidate instead. As long as Biden didn’t have a clear majority of the electoral vote, then Congress would have legitimately selected the President and VP from among the top three contenders.

[Alberta's Child]

The VP cannot void the election under any circumstances.

The only way to even legitimately contest a state’s electoral votes is for someone in a position of legal authority IN THAT STATE to notify Congress of the fraud, malfeasance, etc. that questions the validity of the electoral votes that had been sent to Congress. Preferably, this would be done by a state legislature that also votes on a competing slate of electors and sends them to Congress.

[fireman15]

He made a terrible mistake throwing Pence under the bus. A good portion of the party is still ticked about that.

Sounds like someone is watching too much Don Lemon on CNN. You are out of touch with reality. What medications are you on again? Pence threw his own political career under the bus by giving states a chance to review highly questionable election irregularities. The only “portion of the party” who are “ticked” are the RINO asshats which make up maybe 5% of the party but are over-represented in Republican national leadership.

[fireman15]

Sorry typo. by NOT giving states a chance to review highly questionable election irregularities.

[drjimmy]

It’s in the constitution that the VP has to certify the electoral counts.

Except it's not. Here is what the 12th Amendment states on this topic, keeping in mind that the vice president is president of the senate: "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;-The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President,"

There's nothing in the constitution about the VP "certifying"; it's literally just opening the certificates that have been sent by the states, so they can then be counted.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

If Trump is smart....he stop talking about this. He brought it up AGAIN this week. Pence then fired back.

Trump is very smart and strategic. He is correct to continue to hammer into the public mind HOW the election was stolen. He also has a great ability to bring out the nation's enemies from hiding.

Just like then....he can’t contain himself. He made a terrible mistake throwing Pence under the bus. A good portion of the party is still ticked about that.

Not a mistake, except to never-trumper RINOs

He needs to figure that out....it’s makes him unelectable. Trump needs fix this problem or he will never will if he runs.

The only proper response is to bring back this classic!