In an ongoing drama that should have closed weeks ago, Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday refused to be drawn into a legal suit brought by GOP members of Congress who are trying to throw a spanner into the works of the January 6th congressional certification of the Electoral College.
NEW: In a new court filing, Rep. Louie Gohmert and Arizona electors reveal that they sought to reach an agreement with Pence prior to filing suit — but "those discussions were not successful."
It's the first signal that Pence isn't on board with what Gohmert is seeking. pic.twitter.com/011vPCvJpR [1]
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 29, 2020 [2]
FNC: “Attorneys representing Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and the slate of Republican electors from Arizona indicated in a court filing that Vice President Mike Pence did not agree with their position that Pence could choose between counting the electoral votes of Democrats or Republicans from states where both parties had submitted votes, which would effectively allow him to decide who wins the election. The lawsuit claims that if more than one party has cast electoral votes, the Constitution allows Pence to decide which party’s votes to count when Congress meets to formally announce the winner of the election Jan. 6, 2021. In Arizona and other battleground states that President-elect Joe Biden won in November’s election, the slate of Republican electors — whose votes would have been certified had President Trump won — met on Dec. 14 and cast votes in case legal challenges of the Democrats’ victory were successful. A Tuesday court filing said lawyers for Gohmert discussed the issues with the counsel to the vice president to see if the two sides could avoid litigation by being on the same page. Pence’s team apparently did not view the situation the same way as Gohmert’s side.” We put those statements in italics to get through to some Republicans: It’s over. Even Pence won’t play your game.
“The 2020 presidential election was one we’d expect to see in a banana republic, not the United States of America,” said Gohmert. “In fact, the rampant fraud and unconstitutional actions that took place were so egregious that seven contested states–Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all sent dueling slates of electors to Congress. This puts Vice President Mike Pence in a position where some argue he has to choose between morality and the law. That is not the case.” Nice spin by Gohmert. By the veep isn’t buying it.
“The Electoral Count Act limits or eliminates the Vice President’s ability to determine which electors may be counted,” said Arizona GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward, one of the plaintiffs. “However, plain law cannot contradict a Constitutional Amendment, which is why we are challenging that the statute is unconstitutional and seeking to demonstrate to the American people what the Vice President’s constitutional powers are in this matter.” All sizzle, no steak.
“In the teleconference, Plaintiffs’ counsel made a meaningful attempt to resolve the underlying legal issues by agreement, including advising the Vice President’s counsel that Plaintiffs intended to seek immediate injunctive relief in the event the parties did not agree,” the filing said. “Those discussions were not successful in reaching an agreement and this lawsuit was filed.” Let us repeat: “.. discussions (with Pence’s lawyers) were not successful.” He won’t intervene on the 6th and Joe Biden, like it or not-and we don’t, will be inaugurated on the 20th.
This piece was written by David Kamioner on December 31, 2020. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com [3] and is used by permission.