Even after experts and media outlets called the 2020 election for now-President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump insisted that the results would be overturned, after widespread non-existent fraud was revealed.
After courts repeatedly denied the Trump campaign's attempts to overturn election results in swing states Trump lost, the former President's supporters looked to January 6—the day of a joint congressional session, overseen by then-Vice President Mike Pence, where Congress would acknowledge Biden's victory.
This joint session, which occurs after very election, had been little more than clerical in the past, and the Vice President's role a purely administrative one.
But Trump and other conservatives insisted that Pence had the authority to unilaterally throw out electoral votes if there were objections. Even more absurdly, some said Pence could choose "alternate" Republican electors to cast electoral votes in swing states, even though these states went blue and these so-called electors had no legitimacy.
It was a mess.
When Pence didn't acquiesce to Trump's demands to exercise powers unavailable to him, Trump supporters were livid. Those who eventually stormed the Capitol that day chanted to "Hang Mike Pence," and even erected a gallows outside.
Now, Pence is on a speaking tour across the country—the precursor of a presumed 2024 election bid.
At a stop in Simi Valley, California, Pence doubled down on his decision to certify the election, and appeared to take a swipe at Trump.
Watch below.
The former Vice President said:
"I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."
Conservatives who subscribed to Trump's election delusions weren't happy.
The responses from critics of the Trump administration weren't kind either.
Trump remains the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination—if he decides to run.
@huntichon/X
@bigugly/X
@JonCowboyBear/X
@TommyJerry4000/X