Pence’s Choice: Side With the Constitution or His
Boss
The vice president will preside on Wednesday when
Congress convenes to ratify Joe Biden’s victory. President Trump still seems to
hold out hope that his loyal No. 2 could change the outcome.
Annie
KarniMaggie Haberman
By Annie
Karni and Maggie Haberman
Jan. 4,
2021
WASHINGTON
— Speaking to supporters of President Trump on Monday at the Rock Springs
Church in Milner, Ga., Vice President Mike Pence implored the crowd to vote in
the two runoff elections Tuesday that will determine whether Republicans
maintain control of the Senate.
“I am here
for one reason and one reason only, and that is that Georgia and America need
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler back in the Republican majority,” Mr. Pence
said.
But the
crowd had a message for him, too.
“We need
you do the right thing Jan. 6!” one supporter cried out. “Stop the steal!”
shouted others. The crowd applauded.
If Mr.
Pence has tried to skirt Mr. Trump’s efforts to cling to power, his reception
in Georgia on Monday served as the latest reminder of the delicate role he will
play on Wednesday, when Congress conducts what is typically a ceremonial duty
of opening and counting certificates of electoral votes.
As
president of the Senate, Mr. Pence is expected to preside over the pro forma
certification of the Electoral College vote count in front of a joint session
of Congress. It is a constitutionally prescribed, televised moment in which Mr.
Pence will name the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Joseph R. Biden
Jr.
It is also
a moment some of Mr. Pence’s advisers have been bracing themselves for ever
since the president lost the election and stepped up his baseless claims of
widespread voter fraud. There is no chance of Mr. Pence not being there, people
close to him said. Mr. Pence’s aides have told people that they view the vice
president’s role as largely ceremonial.
“I know we
all have got our doubts about the last election,” Mr. Pence said Monday in
Georgia, attempting to assuage Trump supporters. “I want to assure you that I
share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. I
promise you, come this Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress.”
It was not
clear, perhaps by design, what he meant. Mr. Pence does not have unilateral
power to affect the outcome of Wednesday’s proceedings. But he has carefully
tried to look like he is loyally following the president’s lead even as he goes
through a process that is expected to end with him reading out a declaration
that Mr. Biden is the winner.
After
nearly a dozen Republican senators said they plan to object to the
certification of the vote on Wednesday, the vice president’s chief of staff,
Marc Short, issued a carefully worded statement intended not to anger anyone.
“The vice
president welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the
authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward
evidence before the Congress and the American people on Jan. 6,” he said.
The
statement, which frustrated senators who say Mr. Trump is trying to thwart
democracy, helped to mollify the president, according to one person close to
him.
But it was
not enough to squash the belief of many Trump supporters — and the president
himself — that the vice president could still somehow help overturn the
results.
Two people
briefed on the discussions said Mr. Trump had directly pressed Mr. Pence to
find an alternative to certifying Mr. Biden’s win, such as preventing him from
having 270 electoral votes and letting the election be thrown to the House to
decide.
In Georgia
on Monday night at a rally for Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Mr.
Trump openly pressured the vice president, saying, “I hope Mike Pence comes
through for us, I have to tell you.” He added, “Of course, if he doesn’t come
through, I won’t like him as much,” before saying that he really likes Mr.
Pence.
On Monday,
after Mr. Pence returned from Georgia, the vice president and Mr. Trump were
expected to hear a last-minute pitch at the White House from John Eastman,
another Trump lawyer. Mr. Pence also met with Senate parliamentarians for hours
on Sunday to prepare himself and the president for what he would say while on
the Senate floor.
The fact
that Mr. Pence’s role is almost entirely scripted by those parliamentarians is
not expected to ease a rare moment of tension between himself and the
president, who has come to believe Mr. Pence’s role will be akin to that of
chief justice, an arbiter who plays a role in the outcome. In reality, it will
be more akin to the presenter opening the Academy Award envelope and reading
the name of the movie that won Best Picture, with no say in determining the
winner.
“President
Trump’s real understanding of this process is minimal,” said Scott Reed, a
Republican strategist.
Some of Mr.
Trump’s other advisers have helped fuel the idea that Mr. Pence could affect
the outcome of the election. In an interview with Jeanine Pirro on Fox News on
Saturday night, Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, claimed
inaccurately that Mr. Pence could unilaterally grant a demand by Senator Ted
Cruz of Texas and 11 other Republican senators for an “emergency 10-day audit”
of the election returns in the states Trump allies are disputing.
On Saturday
morning, Mr. Trump called Mr. Pence and expressed “surprise” that the Justice
Department had weighed in against a lawsuit filed by Trump supporters,
including House members, seeking to expand Mr. Pence’s powers in the process.
The suit was dismissed on Friday by a federal judge in Texas whom Mr. Trump had
appointed.
One person
close to Mr. Pence described Wednesday’s duties as gut-wrenching, saying that
he would need to balance the president’s misguided beliefs about government
with his own years of preaching deference to the Constitution.
Members of
the vice president’s circle expect that Mr. Pence will follow the rules while
on the Senate floor and play his ceremonial role as scripted, aides said. But
after that, he will have to compensate by showing his fealty to Mr. Trump.
A tentative
final foreign trip by Mr. Pence to visit Israel, Bahrain and Belgium was
scrapped, while more events to talk up Mr. Trump’s legacy at home are being
considered, according to a person familiar with the plans. Aides would not say
whether Mr. Pence would attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration.
Pence aides
said they expected the vice president to walk through what is expected to
happen on Capitol Hill with Mr. Trump before Wednesday, in part to inoculate
himself against public criticism in real time.
But even
with his practice at managing the president, Republican strategists described
Mr. Pence as being in the worst political position of any potential 2024 major
Republican presidential candidate. The vice president will be unable to avoid a
nationally televised moment when he declares Mr. Biden the winner, potentially
disappointing those who believe Mr. Trump was the victor and angering those who
think he has the power to change the outcome.
“His best
bet is to buck and dodge and make it through without infuriating either side,”
said William Kristol, the conservative columnist and prominent “Never Trump”
Republican who was chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle.
“He has to
hope the Trump people are furious at Tom Cotton and anyone else who doesn’t go
along,” Mr. Kristol said, referring to Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, an ally
of the president’s who said he would not join the effort to challenge the
Electoral College results. “He has to hope establishment Republicans are
furious at Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. And then he’s the guy who didn’t offend
anyone.”
Four years
ago, Mr. Pence was facing a difficult re-election for governor of Indiana when
Mr. Trump’s advisers at the time saw opportunity in choosing the mild-mannered,
silver-haired conservative who was popular among the evangelical voters whose
support Mr. Trump needed.
Since then,
Mr. Pence has played the role of the president’s relentless defender and — with
rare exception — prevented daylight from coming between them.
In an
administration that has cycled through four chiefs of staff, four national
security advisers and four press secretaries, the vice president’s political
calculation has long been that being the unstintingly loyal No. 2 would give
him the best shot at inheriting the Trump mantle.
But with
just 16 days left in the administration, Mr. Pence is at risk of meeting the
fate that he has successfully avoided for four years: being publicly attacked
by the president.
Since the
election, his political advisers have wanted Mr. Pence focused solely on the
two Senate runoffs in Georgia and on the distribution of the coronavirus
vaccine.
Neither has
been of significant interest to the president.
“Pence’s
only play is to be loyal, subservient and supportive right down to the last
minute he’s vice president,” said Michael Feldman, a former traveling chief of
staff to Vice President Al Gore, who recalled his former boss playing the
awkward role prescribed by the Constitution of announcing his own defeat after
Mr. Gore lost the 2000 presidential election. “Pence will do whatever he thinks
will please the president and his supporters in this.”
Annie Karni
is a White House correspondent. She previously covered the White House and
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign for Politico, and covered local
news and politics in New York City for the New York Post and the New York Daily
News. @AnnieKarni
Maggie
Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a
campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018
for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. @maggieNYT
A version
of this article appears in print on Jan. 5, 2021, Section A, Page 14 of the New
York edition with the headline: Pence’s Plight: Certify Result And Escape
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