Mike Pence: A Swamp Creature in Church Clothing
The events of January 6, 2021 were unprecedented in our Nation’s history, not because of the false flag operation at the Capital, but because Mike Pence knowingly violated the Twelfth Amendment, the Electoral Count Act of 1887, and 130 years of precedent.
The debate over the constitutionality of the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and more specifically the Vice President’s authority over the counting of the Electors is unsettled. However, there is no debate over the fact that it is the sole and exclusive responsibility of the Vice President to open all of the certificates.
According to the twelfth amendment “...the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates.” The Electoral Count Act specifies that the Vice President open “all of the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates.” During the 132 years since the Electoral Count Act passed, the Vice President presiding over the joint session to count the electoral votes, has, without exception, opened all of the certificates, including those with dueling electors (as occurred in 1889 and 1960) - that is, until Mike Pence.
Seven states - Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and New Mexico - sent alternate certificates. However, unlike 1889 and 1960, you cannot find them in the congressional record because Mike Pence never opened them.
A comparison of the congressional records for each of the last 35 joint sessions of congress to count the electoral votes (1887 to 2021) lays bare Pence’s scheme. The congressional record of the 22 joint sessions from 1937 to 2017 all contain the following text:
“After ascertainment has been made that the certificates are authentic and correct in form, the tellers will count and make a list of the votes cast by the electors of the several States.”
The congressional record of the 11 joint sessions from 1889 to 1933 expresses the same in so many words. In contrast, the 2021 congressional record states:
“After ascertaining that the certificates are regular in form and authentic, the tellers will announce the votes cast by the electors for each State, beginning with Alabama, which the Parliamentarian has advised me is the only certificate of vote from that State, and purports to be a return from the State, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that State purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.” (Emphasis added)
Mike Pence assigned his responsibility to open all of the electors to the Harry Reid appointed Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough.1 On its face this seems like an immaterial, procedural violation of the 12th amendment and Electoral Count Act.
It was not.
The VP’s authority, or lack thereof, had never been so heavily debated as it was in the days and weeks before January 6, 2021. It was, in fact, the lightning rod issue dominating the political news cycle - and rightly so. The stark contrast between Donald Trump’s America and Joe Biden’s America stood in the balance. As such, we can be certain that everything Pence did - or did not do - on that fateful day was intentional.
To understand what motivated Mike Pence, we need to look no further than what motivates the likes of Mitch McConnell or Liz Cheney. Donald Trump’s presidency revealed an unnerving truth: in Washington DC, the divisions and loyalties are not Right and Left, but Insider and Outsider. While Pence has done a masterful job in casting himself as an honorable, steady-handed, good man, a deeper look reveals that he is in fact a thoroughbred creature of the swamp.
Pence represented Indiana in the House of Representatives from 2001-2013. In 2006 He lost a bid to become the minority leader to John Boehner and was subsequently elected Republican Conference Chairman in 2009. He served as the Governor of Indiana from 2014-2017 prior to becoming Vice President.
During most of his time in office (2005-2017) a man named Joshua Pitcock served as Chief of Staff.2 Pitcock’s wife, an FBI analyst, worked directly for the disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strozk on the Hilary Clinton email scandal.3 She is reported to have resigned after Trump took office, but that is irrelevant. The point is that the spouse of Pence’s chief had a moral compass, or lack thereof, that allowed her to work for one of the most corrupt, unethical FBI agents in recent memory.
Then there’s Marc Short, a true servant of the swamp in every sense. Short was responsible for introducing Pence to the “Never Trump” Koch Brothers in 2009.4 He subsequently served as Chief of Staff to the Republican Conference Chair when Pence was its chairman 2009 to 2011. Short went on to become the president of Freedom Partners where he was the primary force influencing the Koch’s efforts to defeat Trump in the 2016 Republican primary. Despite Short’s open disdain for Trump, at the recommendation of Mike Pence, Short was hired as the Legislative Liaison to Congress for the White House. Instead of working to advance the legislative agenda of his boss, President Trump, it is well documented by news organizations from Politico to Breitbart to the Wall Street Journal that Short worked to undermine construction of the southern border wall (just like fellow Koch puppet Paul Ryan). Short was removed from his post in July of 2018 and worked as a contributor for CNN until February 19, 2019 when Mike Pence hired him as his Chief of Staff.5 President Trump banned Short from the White House grounds on January 7, 2021.6
In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, Mike Pence received letters from Legislators in Pennsylvania7, Arizona8, Georgia9, and Wisconsin10 each expressing fact-based, unadjudicated claims of fraud and illegalities. On January 5, 2020 a letter, along with a 63 page fact-filled report, jointly signed by Legislators in the aforementioned states and Michigan was sent to Pence.11 This joint letter succinctly articulates what was being asked of Mike Pence and the constitutional basis for such a request:
State legislative bodies have the constitutional authority and responsibility to determine the time, place and manner of elections and the selection of presidential electors. Yet, to date, we have been unable to fulfill those responsibilities in the 2020 Presidential election.
The refusal by state executive branch and local officials to comply with reasonable legislative investigation requests, as well as their obfuscation and intentional deception have prevented proper investigation. Moreover, in some instances, state executives have acted to prevent legislatures from meeting as a body and in Michigan, threatened legislators with criminal investigation for meeting to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities.
We intend on fulfilling our oaths of office by properly investigating and determining whether the election should be certified, or decertified,by our respective state legislatures. Additional time must be afforded for the legislatures to meet and for state legislators to fulfill their constitutional duties.
On January 6, 2021, you are statutorily authorized and required under the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to preside over both houses of Congress to count and record the Presidential electoral vote count to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. This congressionally set deadline, however, is not the supreme law of the land, and in fact must not supersede our state legislative authority under the Constitution. Moreover, the deadline is not necessitated by circumstances, especially when it truncates the fulfillment of our constitutional duties and our responsibility to the American people….
Therefore, we write to ask you to comply with our reasonable request to afford our nation more time to properly review the 2020 election by postponing the January 6 opening and counting of the electoral votes for at least 10 days, affording our respective bodies to meet, investigate,and as a body vote on certification or decertification of the election. This action can be completed prior to the inauguration date, as required by the Constitution. (Emphasis added)
Dr. John Eastman, President Trump’s constitutional attorney, a distinguished and honorable man who has been unjustly slandered, speaking on January 6 at the Ellipse shortly before President Trump said:
And all we are demanding of Vice President Pence is this afternoon at 1:00 he let the Legislatures of the States look into this so we get to the bottom of it and the American people know whether we have control of the direction of our government or not.
Subsequently, speaking from the same podium, President Trump made the same ‘ask’ of Pence, saying:
We’re supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our constitution, and protect our constitution. States want to revote. The States got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice-President Pence has to do is send it back to the States to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people (Emphasis added).
Similarly, a group of 11 senators led by Ted Cruz announced on January 2 that they would “…reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given' and ‘lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.” Upon completion of which the states in dispute “could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.”12
In short, President Trump, John Eastman, 11 senators, and a group of 88 state legislators from 5 states were uniform in their message to Mike Pence: return the electors to the states in dispute for a period of 10 days in order that each respective legislature can fulfill their constitutional duty. Perhaps more importantly, what you cannot find is anyone with an active role in the electoral college process calling for Mike Pence to unilaterally overturn the election.
Shortly before 1pm on January 6, Pence sent a carefully crafted letter to Congress claiming that “some believe that as Vice President, I should be able to accept or reject votes unilaterally.” It was simultaneously leaked to the New York Times that this was in reference to John Eastman. To the contrary, John Eastman upon being asked by Mike Pence if he had the authority to unilaterally accept or reject electors, told Pence:
“It's an open question, and quite frankly I think it is the weaker argument, but even if you had that authority the fact that you don’t have certified the alternate slate of electors from the state legislatures means that it would be foolish to exercise it.”13
Why would Pence sew the seeds of a false narrative, undermining the President he claimed to support along with his prospects of another four years as Vice President? The answer is quite simple: party loyalty. No, not to the Republican Party, but to the Insider Party, a party whose mascot is neither donkey nor elephant but swamp creature. Insider Party membership is not free, the initiation fee is your soul and the dues are loyalty to the Party above all else. Four more years of Donald Trump in the White House, after endless attempts to take him down had failed, represented an existential threat to the Insider Party; and so, Mike Pence paid his dues.
On February 4, 2022, Pence, speaking at an event for the RINO sympathizing Federalist Society, repeated the lies contained in his January 6 letter in an attempt to separate himself from President Trump. This speech was effectively the unofficial announcement that Pence will run for President as an Insider Republican in 2024. The backdrop was apropos for an Insider party member: an event hosted by the Federalist Society, an organization that gave us Brett Cavanaugh, sponsored by Facebook, a company whose founder spent more than $450 million dollars to defeat Trump in 2020, and Claire Locke LLP, a boutique defamation law firm currently representing Dominion Voting Systems in their lawsuits against Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, and Mike Lindell.14
https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitcock-b16509146/
Eastman, Dr. John, Guest. “Discussing The John Eastman Memo with John Eastman” Another Way, by Lawrence Lessig, Lawrence Lessig, 06 Feb. 2022, Link to Podcast.
Eastman, Dr. John, Guest. “Discussing The John Eastman Memo with John Eastman” Another Way, by Lawrence Lessig, Lawrence Lessig, 06 Feb. 2022, Link to Podcast.
Super informative......thanks