Hi, I have a question. I got into a long discussion with my law-student brother who, while very conservative and a Trump voter, is certainly no anon and very by the books. He said to me about Pence’s decision on the 6th that it was his constitutional duty to certify the votes, even though they may have been fraudulent, because the states had given him their already certified votes. In other words, the states came to pence and said, “we elected this guy, we’ve already certified it.” This left Pence, even if he knew the votes were fraudulent, no choice but to push them through because the constitution dictates it so. The VP “shall” certify the votes, notwithstanding the validity of them, since they’ve gotten to that point. Hopefully this makes sense.
What are your thoughts on this?
OK, but there was a middle ground.
Several states had sent two sets of Electors to DC. That indicated they they were having second thoughts about their original decision. Pence could have asked for a few more days so that the state legislatures could have clarified things but he did not.
Also, doing only what is legally necessary is not always the best solution. Imagine you are crossing a one-way street and traffic is allowed to approach only from the left. Do you never look right on the grounds that no-one should be approaching from that side? Or do you do the risk analysis and decide that your life could be over if that happened so it is worth the extra glance?