“The function of the Vice President (as President of the Senate) is to COUNT the electoral votes that have already been certified.
Anyone who thinks the VP of the United States has the authority to unilaterally reject even a single electoral vote is delusional.”
The strawman is “unilaterally reject”
the US Constitution 12th Amendment, 20th Amendment, and 3 USC 1 through 20
REQUIRE disputes about the legitimacy of Electors to be addressed and resolved by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The gag here is the trick of saying Pence would “UNILATERALLY” or on his own initiative or whim accept or reject anything.
Nobody asked him to do that.
Nobody suggested that Pence do that.
There are elaborate procedures — multiple pathways — for the legitimacy the Electors in the Electoral College to be dhallenged and disputes resolved.
As the presiding officer of the Joint Session, Vice President Mike Pence was
R E Q U I R E D
to use and administer those procedures fully and completely.
Not just he could.
He was REQUIRED TO to fulfill his Constitutional duties.
But not based on his own personal whim. That is a fake straw man argument.
Our Constitution gives the power to choose the Electors of the Electoral College EXCLUSIVELY to each State Legislature.
Not to any other part of the State government.
Only to the legislature.
If a slate of electors is “certified” by the Governor, and the State LEGISLATURE says “Naw, we don’t think so,” the certification evaporates into dust in thin air.
The only correct constitutional method is for the State legislature to have 100% exclusive control at every stage of the process.
Remember that under our original Constitution, that’s how Senators were chosen. U.S. Senators were appointed by the State legislatures.
That’s how the election of the President works.
But Pence was too uninformed to know what his duties were.