Mike Pence’s Mission Is Slavish Devotion Every Day Til Jan. 20
On Jan. 6, Pence will preside over the final, official verification of Trump’s, and his own, defeat. He has no power to prevent it. But he’ll know the boss is watching.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty
I know you think it’s over. I did too, for a few minutes after the Electoral College voted on Monday. Although marred by death threats, police escorts, and undisclosed locations, state electors confirmed that Joe Biden is president-elect of the United States.
But the drama continues because the fat lady, in the form of Vice President Mike Pence, has not yet sung. He will preside over a joint session of Congress convening on Jan. 6 at which the 535 members of Congress meet to validate the Dec. 14 electors’ tally.
This, in normal times, would be a pro-forma ceremony. But these are not normal times. Trump sees this routine rubber-stamping of Monday’s rubber-stamping of the election as another chance, after weeks of unsuccessful lawsuits and recounts, to reverse the rigged election that the Man Whose Name He Won’t Say stole from him.
