Vivek Ramaswamy says Pence missed ‘historic opportunity’ to unite country on Jan. 6

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday that former Vice President Mike Pence missed out on the chance to use the Jan. 6 certification of the 2020 election as an opportunity to “reunite this country.”

“I think that there was a historic opportunity that he missed to reunite this country in that window,” the biotech entrepreneur said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Here’s what I would have said: ’We need single-day voting on Election Day. We need paper ballots, and we need government-issued IDs matching the voter file. And if we achieve that, then we have achieved victory, and we should not have any further complaint about election integrity.’”

Mr. Pence, who is also running for president, ultimately certified the election results and has since argued the Constitution would not have allowed him to do otherwise. 

Mr. Ramaswamy, who in recent weeks has shot to third in the polls behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis despite his status as a virtually unknown political newcomer, said he also would have ultimately certified the 2020 election results. 

“In my capacity as president of the Senate, I would have led through that level of reform. Then on that condition, certified the election results, served it up to President Trump then to sign that into law, and on January 7th declared the reelection campaign pursuant to a free and fair election,” Mr. Ramaswamy said. “I think that was a missed opportunity. But that’s the kind of spirit we’re going to need to unite this country rather than sweeping those concerns under the rug.”