In yet another dubious bid to hand Donald Trump a second term as president, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and other right-wing Republicans are suing Vice President Mike Pence.
Huh? Let’s say that again: Republicans are suing a Republican vice president.
The lawsuit asks a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas to rule that when Pence presides over a Jan. 6 meeting to officially certify Electoral College votes from the November election, he has the power to throw out non-Trump votes, and calls on him to use it.
Details of the suit were first reported Sunday night by John Kruzel of The Hill — who writes that election law experts are “dismissive” of its “prospects for success.”
Other observers, like Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis state their views more bluntly.
“Insane,” Kreis says, according to Yahoo News.
“Typically, the vice president’s role in presiding over the meeting is a largely ceremonial one governed by an 1887 federal law known as the Electoral Count Act,” Kruzel reports.
So where did this seemingly unconstitutional notion that Pence could reject some election results come from?
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times tweets that some of Trump’s advisers are telling him “that Pence has a magic power on Jan. 6” — the power to choose whichever Electors he likes.
Gohmert was joined by 11 more GOP plaintiffs in filing the suit, including Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, and other more-or-less prominent Republicans.