VP Mike Pence can place himself in the history books alongside Thomas Jefferson or he can sign off on the destruction of the United States as we know it.
The Gateway Pundit reported yesterday on how Vice President Pence can place himself in the history books by standing up for the rule of law next Wednesday, January 6th:
As we reported yesterday, Pence has a unique opportunity where he can save the world and place himself alongside Thomas Jefferson.
“Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, among the most revered founding fathers of our country, only became President because he used his unilateral power as President of the Senate to open and count the presidential ballots in his own favor.”
— Land of the Free (@trustrestored) December 28, 2020
In this epic piece, Alexander Macris summarizes legal arguments and notes that the President of the Senate is the only person who has the ability and authority to pick the electors from each state when there are more than one set of electors. Macris writes:
Mike Pence may be the most powerful man in America right now!
Macris, using sources on the issue, notes that the only way Thomas Jefferson won the presidency was when he selected Georgia's electoral college votes in his favor. Had he not done that, he never would have become President:
Foley, also obviously unhappy with this situation, goes on to explain:
[Thus] Republicans [can] point to the historical pedigree of this position, observing that Republicans made the same argument during the disputed election of 1876 and that at least some recent law journal scholarship has supported this position. Unembarrassed by the apparent conflict of interest caused by Mike Pence simultaneously being a candidate for reelection and arbiter of the electoral dispute, these Republicans observe that Thomas Jefferson was in essentially the same position during the disputed election of 1800 and yet the Twelfth Amendment left this provision in place when Congress rewrote the procedures for the Electoral College afterwards.
Wait, Thomas Jefferson pulled this trick? Indeed he did. The 1800 Presidential election was a contest between Jefferson, Aaron Burr, John Adams, Charles Pinckney, and John Jay. Jefferson, as the current Vice President, was the President of the Senate when it came time to count the votes. And he counted them in his own favor! Bruce Ackerman and David Fontana explain what happened in their article “Thomas Jefferson Counts Himself into the Presidency” (90 Virginia Law Review 2004, 551-643):
Thomas Jefferson was remarkably aggressive as President of the Senate. Georgia’s certificate - granting four electoral votes to Jefferson - was constitutionally defective on its face, a deficiency that was announced on the floor of Congress and reported by leading newspapers of the day. To resolve all doubts, we have located Georgia’s certificate in the National Archives, and it does indeed reveal striking constitutional irregularities…
Nevertheless, Jefferson failed to pause before counting George’s four electoral votes into the Republican column, declaring the final vote as if nothing were amiss. Had Georgia’s ballot been excluded, the vote count…would have admitted all five candidates into a runoff in the House… Without the decisive use of his power as President of the Senate, Jefferson might never have become President of the United States. (emphasis added)
Read that again: Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, the man whose face adorns Mt Rushmore, among the most revered founding fathers of our country, only became President because he used his unilateral power as President of the Senate to open and count the presidential ballots in his own favor.