Senate Republican Conference chair John Barrasso (R-WY) on Sunday said that former Vice President Mike Pence fulfilled his “constitutional duty” by certifying the 2020 presidential election results. Barrasso’s remarks came days after the ex-VP debunked former President Trump’s claim that Pence could’ve overturned the results.
During a Federalist Society conference on Friday, Pence said that Trump was “wrong” to insist that his former VP had the authority to overturn the results on the day he presided over the joint session of Congress last year certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
“I had no right to overturn the election,” Pence said. “The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
Asked whether he agrees with Pence, Barrasso replied that he thinks Pence “did his constitutional duty.”
“I voted to certify the election and I think Mike Pence did his constitutional duty that day,” Barrasso said. “It’s not the Congress that elects the president, it’s the American people.”
Barrasso went on to heap praise onto the former president and Pence before taking swipes at Democrats.
“But I tell you, President Trump and Mike Pence did remarkable things for this country and I hope they can work out their differences,” Barrasso said. “We are better as a party when we’re unified and we are united, certainly here in Wyoming, about what this current administration is doing with regard to high prices, inflation, an open border, crime in the cities.”
After quipping that the people of Wyoming are “fed up,” Barrasso was asked again whether he agrees with Pence that he did not have the power to overturn the election results.
Barrasso reiterated that he voted to certify the elections, then suggested that his constituents have moved on from talking about the 2020 election because they want him to “focus on the future.”
“I will tell you, I’ve been at 15 events in Wyoming in the last week. Last night 800 people at a Boys & Girls Club dinner, this never comes up,” Barrasso said.
“People are really concerned about empty shelves at the grocery store, high prices — a dollar a gallon higher price for gasoline, an open southern border with criminals — all of these people coming across, crime in the cities,” Barrasso continued, while knocking Democrats. “People in Wyoming want me to focus on the future, not the past.”
Although Barrasso signaled his approval of Pence for following through on his “constitutional duty” of certifying the election results, the Wyoming senator in November declined to criticize the former president.
Barrasso’s latest remarks were issued days after Trump suggested that the Jan. 6 Committee investigate Pence for certifying the 2020 election results, following the former president’s frank admission that he wanted his VP to overturn the results.
Watch Barrasso’s remarks below:
