US ‘going through hell’ because of Pence, Trump says

Donald Trump has criticized Mike Pence for refusing to intervene and challenge the result of the 2020 presidential election, branding his former vice president as an “automatic conveyor belt” for Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to “get Biden elected President as quickly as possible.”

In a statement on Friday, Trump reiterated his claims that Pence had the power to take action “if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities” were found during the election. In such situations, he noted that it “would have been appropriate to send those votes back to the legislatures to figure it out.”

The remarks came in response to Pence’s comments at a private gathering about how Trump was “wrong” for claiming the vice president had the power to overturn the 2020 election result. He criticized the “notion that any one person could choose the American president” as “un-American.”

Over the past two years, Trump has occasionally attacked Pence for certifying the Electoral College results on January 6, 2021, maintaining that he could have acted unilaterally to reject them in his constitutional role as the presiding officer over the receiving and counting of electoral ballots cast in presidential elections.

The former US president also took aim at McConnell, labeling him an “Old Crow.” He warned that Democrats and RINOs [Republican in name only] were “working feverishly together to change the very law that Mike Pence and his unwitting advisors used on January 6 to say he had no choice.”

Trump was likely referring to reports last month about a bipartisan effort by lawmakers to discuss potential changes to the Electoral Count Act, a 19th century law that outlines how the Electoral College results are counted. McConnell had previously said the notion of making changes to the statute was “worth discussing.”

Noting that the “Dems and RINOs want to take [the vice-president’s] right away,” Trump said that not overturning the election results was a “great opportunity lost.” He claimed that the “country is going to hell” for that lack of action.

While Trump and some of his supporters have continued to insist the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, no evidence to back up their allegations of widespread voter fraud has been presented. His critics, including some within the Republican Party, have dismissed the allegations as baseless.

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