FACT CHECK: Viral Image Falsely Claims Mike Pence Resigned On Dec. 31, 2020
An image shared on Facebook claims Vice President Mike Pence resigned Dec. 31, 2020.
Facebook/Screenshot
Verdict: False
Pence did not resign on Dec. 31, 2020. He has performed vice presidential duties since then, including presiding over Congress certifying the Electoral College votes.
Fact Check:
The image appears to show a screen grab of a Dec. 31 post on an online messaging board along with a photo of Pence. (RELATED: Did Mike Pence Change His Twitter Cover Photo To One Of Kamala Harris And Joe Biden?)
“Pence has resigned as Vice President effective immediately,” reads the message in part. “It’s why Trump and Pence both cancelled their New Year’s plans last minute. Pence doesn’t agree with the direction of the election challenges and doesn’t want to be pressured to reject the electors.”
The vice president did not resign on Dec. 31. Had he done so, his resignation would have been covered by major media outlets, yet none did. The White House also did not put out a press release to that effect, and Pence did not announce such a thing on social media.
Furthermore, he has performed vice presidential duties since Dec. 31. Pence presided over Congress’s counting of the Electoral College votes, which finalized President-elect Joe Biden’s win early Thursday morning, Politico reported.
Trump had previously urged Pence to reject some of the Electoral College votes, according to The New York Times. In a Jan. 6 letter to Congress, Pence said he did not believe he had the power to reject them.
“Vesting the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide presidential contests would be entirely antithetical to that design,” he wrote. “As a student of history who loves the Constitution and reveres its Framers, I do not believe the Founders of our country intended to vest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress, and no Vice President in history has ever asserted such authority.”
Rioters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday following a pro-Trump rally in an attempt to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes, The Associated Press reported. Congress later reconvened and finalized Biden’s electoral victory.
