‘So Help Me God’: Pence Vows to Certify Election Results Despite Trump Pressure

In a letter sent to Congress, Vice President Mike Pence said once and for all that he does not believe he has the authority to decide “which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.” Pence wrote in the three-page letter that he will certify the election results on Wednesday, officially making President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the November presidential election. “When the Joint Session of Congress convenes today, I will do my duty to see to it that we open the certificates of the Electors of several states, we hear objections raised by Senators and Representatives, and we count the votes of the Electoral College for President and Vice President in a manner consistent with our Constitution, laws, and history. So Help Me God,” Pence wrote. President Trump has pleaded with Pence in increasingly desperate tones to reject the vote during the joint session of Congress Wednesday, and more than 100 Republican lawmakers have said they will refuse to certify the results.

Trump later responded to Pence’s refusal to tamper with the election results: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” His condemnation came after Trump-supporting protesters breached barricades and stormed the Capitol building, causing both the House and Senate to go into recess.