Donald Trump has responded to rare criticism from Mike Pence.
Last night, while speaking at a Federalist Society event in Florida, the former vice president of the United States, Pence verbally countered a recent statement from Trump, in which the former president alluded that recent efforts in Congress to strengthen the Electoral Count Act as evidence that the former vice president could have acted unilaterally in Congress on January 6, 2021.
As reported by CNN, Trump said on Sunday: "Actually, what they are saying, is 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!"
However, Pence quashed the claim, saying Friday night: "I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong."
"The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president," the former VP said.
Pence continued: "There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress that I possess unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes."
"I had no right to change the outcome of our election. Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024," he added.
In response, Trump released a statement late Friday night through his Save America PAC, which read: "Just saw Mike Pence’s statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count, other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible."
Trump's comments here regarding any voter fraud are, once again, unfounded and baseless.
Trump continued: "Well, the Vice President’s position is not an automatic conveyor if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist. That’s why the Democrats and RINOs [Republicans In Name Only] are 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.
"The reason they want it changed is because they now say they don’t want the Vice President to have the right to ensure an honest vote.
"In other words, I was right and everyone knows it,” Trump said. "If there is fraud or large scale irregularities, it would have been appropriate to send those votes back to the legislature to figure it out. The Dems and RINOs want to take that right away."
Pence has repeatedly referred to the events of January 6 as "a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol," and during a conservative policy conference in June, he said of Trump: "I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day."
On the morning of January 6, 2021, Pence also told Congress: "It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not."
Ever since the Capitol Riots, the relationship between the two former running mates has continued to grow more distant.
