President Trump piled more pressure on Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, saying that he will never concede defeat and demanding that his loyal deputy refuse to certify the results of November’s election.
With his political power evaporating, along with Republican hopes of holding the Senate, Trump emerged from the White House to address thousands of supporters just before members of Congress were due to meet and formalize Joe Biden’s election win.
He repeated a string of discredited conspiracy theories about vote-rigging, claims rejected by courts across the country, and called on supporters to march on the Capitol.
“We will never give up,” said Trump to a rapturous reception from a stage framed by the White House. “We will never concede.”
Instead, he called on Pence to refuse to certify electoral votes from battleground states despite reports that his vice president has already told him he has no such power.
“All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president,” he said.
He took the stage (on the Ellipse, just south of the White House) just an hour before his vice president was due to begin opening certificates of the electoral votes from each state. At the end of the process, Pence has the job of announcing who won the most votes for the posts of president and vice president.
It will provide a testing moment for a deputy who has proved himself loyal for the past four years and has designs on the top office himself. It leaves Pence walking a fine line between protecting his own integrity while not alienating Trump’s millions of supporters.
And it sets up a bitter fight within the Republican Party between those who blame Trump for losing the House of Representatives, the White House, and possibly the Senate during four turbulent years and those who maintain that his “America first” approach offers the best chance of future success.
For more than an hour, Trump ran through his favorite grievances, railing against his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, directing barbs at Biden’s eldest son, Hunter, and reprising an old claim about appearing on the last week of the Oprah Winfrey Show. The crowd was unusually quiet in the cold January air but noisily stirred into life when he described Democratic victories as being sparked by “explosions of bullshit.”
“Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!” his audience chanted.
He closed by calling on supporters to march on Congress to spur reluctant Republicans into backing his attempt to overturn the election.
“And we’re going to the Capitol,” he said. “We’re going to try and give our Republicans … the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So, let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Family members appeared before the president took the stage, including his two sons Eric and Donald Jr.
Donald Jr. took aim at Republicans who were not backing his father’s efforts to overturn November’s results.
“This gathering should send a message to them,” he said. “This is not their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”
Anyone who stands in the president’s way can expect a rough ride within the party, he added.
“If you’re going to be the zero and not the hero, we’re coming for you,” he said. “And we’re going to have fun doing it.”
First in line could be Pence, who has a largely ceremonial role as Congress tallies Electoral College votes, presiding over the final certification of Biden’s win.
Trump has spent days heaping pressure on his loyal lieutenant to reject the result of the Electoral College. He returned to the theme on Wednesday morning, even after reports that Pence had told him a day earlier that he lacked authority to do anything other than rubber-stamp the tally.
“All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN,” Trump tweeted in comments quickly flagged as disputed. “Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021
But reports surfaced on Tuesday that Pence had told the president he had no such authority, a view backed by some other Trump loyalists.
“We’ve fought on every front on legally viable methods that are based on the Constitution of the United States. We don’t want anarchy here, folks,” said Jay Sekulow, who was part of Trump’s impeachment defense team, on his radio show.
