Bipartisan group of Senators introduce bill to clarify the VP can not reject states’ presidential electors, overturn results

A bipartisan group of senators is currently authoring a bill to clarify that the vice president does not have the ability to set aside slates of presidential electors and functionally overturn the results of a presidential election.

The potential legislation came in response to former President Donald Trump looking to exploit what he saw as an ambiguity in the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

Sunday night, Trump issued a statement saying the incoming legislation proves that “Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the election!”

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol Building is currently digging into whether Trump was involved in an effort to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.

Committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, said the new Trump statement was “an admission” as well as “a massively un-American statement.” Prominent Trump critic, lawyer George Conway, summed up the legal issues with Trumps claim.

“The Twelfth Amendment and the Electoral Count Act of 1887 already made it entirely clear that the vice president merely opens the envelopes,” Conway tweeted. “But sometimes we want to make laws even clearer so that even semiliterate psychopaths have a chance at understanding them.” 

Trump has so far only suggested that he would be running for a second term in the presidential election of 2024. He hinted Saturday night at a rally that he would potentially pardon the January 6 rioters if he is elected a second time.