For a vice president who has navigated service to a mercurial president with praise and public acts of loyalty, Vice President Pence faces the ultimate challenge on Wednesday. He will preside over a joint session of Congress that will make official Joe Biden’s election — and President Trump’s loss.
Trump has publicly lobbied Pence to reject the Electoral College results or otherwise reverse the Nov. 3 election outcome. But the vice president’s role in the session is a ceremonial one: As the president of the Senate, his actions are prescribed by law and the Constitution.
“I don’t think that Vice President Pence has any significant discretion in what he does,” said Joel Goldstein, an emeritus professor of law at St. Louis University and an expert in the vice presidency. “The Constitution assigns him a very modest role.”
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