Trump VP contender Tim Scott doesn’t want to talk about vice president’s role in certifying election
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) – Sen. Tim Scott, a potential running mate if Donald Trump becomes the Republican presidential nominee, is carefully handling questions about whether he would have endorsed the 2020 election had he been vice president at the time.
On January 6, 2021, about two months after Trump lost the White House, then-Vice President Mike Pence defied his boss and refused to use his largely ceremonial role in overseeing the election certification process to block Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. Pence pressed ahead with ratifying the Electoral College even after a violent mob of Trump supporters, some of whom chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” overran the U.S. Capitol, interrupting congressional proceedings and forcing Pence, his family and staff into hiding in the complex. .
Scott, a Trump rival in the 2024 race who dropped out and later endorsed the former president, declined to say in two interviews on Sunday news shows whether he would have acted differently as vice president.
“I’m not going to answer hypothetical questions, No. 1,” said Scott, R.S.C. He added: “You’re asking a hypothetical question that you know can never happen again.”
Scott voted to certify the 2020 results as the Senate returned to work after the siege. He also said during a presidential debate last year that Pence did the right thing by certifying the election.
The issue of certification is starting to resurface among Republicans. Two other potential Trump vice presidential candidates, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, said this month that they would not have allowed the 2020 election results to be certified on Jan. 6 if they were in Pence’s position.
Scott sidestepped questions Sunday about how he viewed the vice president’s role in the certification process.
“All we know about the future is that fortunately the former president will be successful in 2024, he won’t have to deal with that situation again,” Scott said. “So what we need to focus on is what will make the former president, President Trump, the next president of the United States.”
Congress passed legislation in 2022 that would change the law governing the certification of a presidential contest, aiming to prevent a repeat of Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 loss. The legislation makes clear in part that the vice president’s responsibilities in the certification process are purely ceremonial and that the vice president has no say in who actually won the election.
Trump is facing charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the lead-up to the Capitol riot. He was impeached after January 6 on charges of inciting an insurrection, but was acquitted by the Senate the following month after leaving office.
Scott appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”