Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) responded to claims that House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R.N.Y.) would have decertified the 2020 election had she been vice president. That’s completely wrong,” he objected.
Reacting to her comments in a CNN interview, Crenshaw accused Stefanik of disrespecting former Vice President Mike Pence and argued that the position does not have the authority to decertify the election. did.
“The only reason I’m not worried is because what she’s saying is completely wrong,” Crenshaw told CNN’s Dana Bash on Friday. “The Constitution does not give you, the vice president, the power to decertify an election. That’s very clear.”
“So you can put it on your screen and read it. Mike Pence reads it and comes to the conclusion that he doesn’t have the authority to decertify the election,” he continued. “It doesn’t even have the word ‘certify’ in it. So the idea that there’s even a mechanism for Congress to certify or decertify an election is simply false.”
Crenshaw added, “Democrats are completely wrong about that. They’ve been doing that for the last few elections. This time the Republicans are wrong.”
His comments are that the New York congressman is on former President Trump’s list of vice presidential candidates for the 2024 election, unlike Pence, who handed the victory to President Biden on January 6, 2021. This comes after he said he would reject the electoral votes.
“I wouldn’t have done the same thing that Mike Pence did. I don’t think that was the right approach,” Stefanik said on CNN Thursday. “I particularly support what was said in the House of Commons.”
Bash asked Texas lawmakers what would happen if a similar situation occurred with someone like Stefanik in the No. 2 spot in 2024.
He dismissed the question, insisting that Trump would not become president for a third time. But he added that their stance on the issue would not bring about change because they do not have the power to decertify the election.
“If Donald Trump wins, that scenario really won’t happen because he’s not seeking re-election for a second time,” Crenshaw said. “If you actually looked at that scenario, the vice president would be able to say whatever they wanted to the gavel right then and there. They could say whatever they wanted to say, but it wouldn’t be true, so It wasn’t.”
“The Constitution never recognizes that,” he added.
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