Tensions between Donald Trump and Mike Pence heightened on Tuesday when the former president lashed out at the House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot and demanded it instead scrutinize his former vice president’s refusal to help him overturn the 2020 election result.
“The Unselect Committee should be investigating why (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!” Trump raged in a wild statement shared online by his spokesperson Liz Harrington.
Trump’s demand centered on the flawed suggestion that current bipartisan Senate proposals to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which are in the very early stages, show Pence could have blocked the certification of Biden’s victory.
The planned overhaul of the act, however, intends to clarify the vice president’s role in certifying the Electoral College result as ceremonial, thus preventing a future president from exerting the kind of pressure to subvert democracy that Trump put on Pence.
