Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday that “vice presidents can’t simply decide not to certify” the result of an election, distancing himself from the repeated claims of former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Trump has insisted that former Vice President Mike Pence could have changed the results of the 2020 election.
“I just don’t think a vice president has that power,” Mr. Rubio said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The Florida Republican, who ran against Mr. Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, suggested Mr. Trump’s argument is shortsighted.
“If President Trump runs for reelection, I believe he would defeat Joe Biden — and I don’t want Kamala Harris to have the power as vice president to overturn that election,” he said. “That is the same thing that I concluded in January of 2021.”
Mr. Pence scored headlines last week after delivering remarks before the Federalist Society in which he said, “President Trump is wrong.
“I had no right to overturn the election,” Mr. Pence said.
Mr. Trump fired back, criticizing Mr. Pence and his“unwitting advisors” for acting as “an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible.”
“The Vice President’s position is not an automatic conveyor if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s why the Democrats and RINOs are working feverishly together to change the very law that Mike Pence and his unwitting advisors used on January 6 to say he had no choice.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.