He wrote an op-ed for the Heritage Foundation website, The Daily Signal. Let’s break it down.
Pence begins:
After an election marked by significant voting irregularities and numerous instances of officials setting aside state election law, I share the concerns of millions of Americans about the integrity of the 2020 election.
It appears Pence is echoing Donald Trump’s CPAC speech. Does he believe Trump won the 2020 election? It sure sounds like it.
Also, no state “set aside” its election laws. They merely expanded them in order to adjust to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. The states tried to preserve the democratic practice of voting in a time of national crisis. What was the alternative? Is Pence and the rest of the GOP willing to admit that they wanted fewer people to vote so that they would have a better chance of winning these states? How do the more respectable Trumpers like Pence differ from this guy:
Pence continues:
That’s why when I was serving as presiding officer at the joint session of Congress certifying the Electoral College results, I pledged to ensure that all objections properly raised under the Electoral Count Act would be given a full hearing before Congress and the American people. The tragic events of Jan. 6—the most significant being the loss of life and violence at our nation’s Capitol—also deprived the American people of a substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity in America.
This is an interesting interpretation of events. Rather than stressing his role in certifying a Biden victory in the Electoral College on January 6, 2021, Pence describes his responsibility in terms of “ensuring” that “all objections” were “properly raised.” He also refuses to mention the role Trump played in the insurrection
Pence claims that if the insurrection did not occur there would have been a “substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity.” This is disingenuous. There was never going to be any “substantive discussion” about this. Pence implies that if the insurrection did not happen Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz might have convinced Democratic and Republican senators to change their votes on certification. Insurrection or no insurrection, the Senate was going to certify Biden. Pence interprets the events this way because he wants to stay in good standing with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party in case he decides to run for president. Imagine ambition controlling your life to such an extent that you have to spend your waking hours performing such political calculations.
Read Pence’s entire op-ed here.
Just for the record: the Trump lawyers and others lost at least 63 election fraud lawsuits, almost every one that they filed. Pence’s entire call for election reform was triggered by the belief that dozens of judges, including several Trump appointees, were wrong. Chris Krebs, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary and the man responsible for election integrity, called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.” Of course none of this is going to convince Americans who believe that federal judges and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are all part of a “deep state.”
In the end, if anyone is undermining the integrity of American elections it is Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the GOP “election fraud” crowd.