“Where is Mike Pence?”
That was one of the slogans that was chanted last Wednesday among the crowd of supporters of Donald Trump who stormed the United States Capitol to show his rejection of the certification of the election of Joe Biden as the next president of that country.
The current Republican vice president, who has been one of the officials most loyal to Trump , had suddenly become a traitor in the eyes of the mob.
“I heard at least three of the mutineers on Capitol Hill say they hoped to find Vice President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol tree as a traitor. It was a common phrase that they were repeating. Many more only spoke about how the vice president should be executed, “said the photographer Jim Bourg, of the Reuters agency, who was present at the scene on his Twitter account.
And it is that a short time before, that same day, Pence seemed to have crossed a red line by not agreeing to Trump’s proposal to use his position as President of the Senate (position that corresponds to all those who occupy the vice presidency in the United States) to try to reverse the results of the presidential elections of November 3, which Trump has labeled as fraudulent without providing evidence.
According to a photographer from Reuters, some mutineers spoke of wanting find Pence to hang up. Pence has spent the last four years juggling to interpret the heterodox proposals of the current president, in such a way that they fit within the legal channels ales and institutions of traditional politics, while avoiding casting any kind of questioning about Trump or his ideas.
However, the request to try to reverse the results of the presidential elections was something beyond any balancing act and, apparently, has ended up opening a gap between the president and his vice president .
Paradoxically, however, what happened on Wednesday at the Capitol has placed Pence in a difficult situation and, at the same time , has made him a central figure for the resolution of the current political crisis in the United States.
How Trump was “alone” and why the assault on the Capitol could generate a schism in the Republican Party 3 possible scenarios of the political crisis in the United States after the assault of Trump’s followers on the Capitol Thu go of the sequence Pence considered himself Trump’s political successor, according to several analysts. Some US media have pointed out that Pence’s original bet was to become the political heir of Trump and succeed him in 2024, after having accompanied him for eight years in the White House.
Those plans would have obviously been disrupted by the victory of the Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential elections on November 3, but also by the decision Trump’s failure to acknowledge his defeat.
On that election night, Trump delivered his speech declaring himself the winner of the election based on partial counts and, at the same time, accusing the Democrats of wanting to do fraud.
So when it was Pence’s turn to speak, he said he believed they were headed for victory and that they had to be vigilant to protect the integrity of the vote (in an obvious nod to Trump), but made no express mention of the alleged fraud. An impeccable act of balancing act .
From that moment, while Trump insisted and failed in his political and legal attempts to reverse the electoral results, Pence He knew how to stay on the sidelines.
However, during the last days the president decided that the way to stay in the White House was for Pence -as president of the Senate- to refused to certify the voting results.
Trump publicly placed Pence in a compromised position when last 5 January said in a tweet that “the vice president has the power to reject (Electoral College) votes fraudulently chosen.”
Donald Trump put Pence in a tight spot during a political rally on January 5, 2021. And even more so, when at the meeting with his supporters in Washington on January 6 himself said he would be disappointed if Pence did not attempt to reject some of these Electoral College votes. “Mike Pence will have to help us,” Trump told the crowd.
That same day, shortly before the session, the vice president released a letter to Congress in which he made it clear that he could not agree to the president’s request .
“My reasoned judgment is that my oath to support and defend the Constitution prevents me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” wrote Pence echoing a criterion widely shared by jurists, according to which the role of the president of the Senate in certifying the votes of the Electoral College is merely ceremonial.
Soon after, Trump would line up the batteries against him in one of the last messages he was able to post before Twitter suspended his account:
“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving the states an opportunity to certify a series of corrected data and not print them accurate and fraudulent that they were previously asked to certify. America demands the truth, ”he wrote.
Mike Pence presided over the plenary session of Congress that ratified the election of Joe Biden. Pence, faithful of the scale After the assault on the Capitol by Trump’s followers, many have held the president responsible for what happened and voices have been growing demanding that be removed from power without being allowed to complete the scarce 11 remaining days in the White House .
This circumstance, paradoxically, makes Pence the key political figure of the moment. This is due not only to the fact that he would be the responsible for assuming the reins of government if Trump is removed, but also because one of the mechanisms for that removal passes directly through the hands of the vice president : the Amendment 25 of the United States Constitution.
This provision was established in the decade of 1960, after the death of John F. Kennedy, to regulate the presidential succession in the event that the president is unable to hold office.
Amendment 25 or impeachment? Increasing pressure for Trump to be removed This rule contemplates a scenario in which the president is not able to fulfill his duty but does not want to resign. Then, the vice president and a majority of the cabinet can declare that the president cannot exercise his position and, thus, remove him.
However, Trump could object to his removal. In that case, the vice president and the cabinet could leave him in power or insist on his removal, which would force the case to go to Congress, where approval requires the affirmative vote of two thirds of both houses.
Senate Democratic Party leader Chuck Schumer has said that Pence should invoke est to amendment to oust Trump from power.
This possibility, however, entails for Pence the risk of ending up permanently distancing the faithful and mobilized bases of Trump that he aspired to inherit.
Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, says Pence will invoke the amendment to oust Trump from power. According to Schumer, if the vice president does not act, Congress could initiate the proceedings for an impeachment against the president.
“What happened on Capitol Hill was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not remain in office for another day, “said the Democratic leader.
Between the end of 2019 and beginnings of 2020, Trump has already been subjected to a political trial of this type, from which he was acquitted thanks to the votes of the Republicans in the Senate and, despite everything, it is not clear that a new attempt will be successful.
But, if that happens, then the man in charge of handing over power to Joe Biden next 20 January would be none other than a president of very short mandate named Mike Pence.
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