Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration would work aggressively to protect the integrity of November’s election as he promised the president would respect the will of the people.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner Thursday as he traveled by bus from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Pence said he and the president would accept the result of a “free and fair election.”
BREAKING: 72-Year Old Grandma's Anti-Aging Discovery Sweeps The Nation
But he warned of the opportunity for fraud as he adopted his familiar stance of presidential translator, adding context and caveats to President Trump’s Wednesday evening refusal to embrace a peaceful transition.
“The American people can be confident we will accept the outcome of a free and fair election,” he said. "That’s why we are working so hard to protect the integrity of the vote."
“You have states around the country that are enacting universal mail-in ballots, enacting vote harvesting to go with that," he said. "In the state of Wisconsin, we literally had a court that ruled that ballots could be accepted up to six days after the election. To protect the one-person, one-vote principle, we are going to be very, very aggressive — to preserve a free and fair election.”
His comments raise the threat of more court action to limit the use of mail-in ballots during an election overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.
A day earlier, Trump had been asked by a reporter whether he would endorse a peaceful transition of power, “win, lose or draw.”
The president responded by saying, “Well, we’ll have to see what happens,” pointing to concerns about the integrity of the ballots.
Democrats seized on the comment to accuse Trump of threatening democracy and further politicizing the upcoming nomination of a justice to the Supreme Court, which he said would be involved in determining the election outcome.
For his part, Pence insisted the question of whether Trump would leave gracefully would not arise.
“I’m convinced we are going to win the election,” he said after visiting a kitchen counter manufacturing plant in northwestern Wisconsin. “And I honestly believe that.
“You see people on the streets today, you see the enthusiasm at Midwest Manufacturing. I just think the enthusiasm is greater today than it was in September of 2016.”
But he said concerns about mail-in ballots and other voter issues made it imperative that the vacant Supreme Court seat be filled before the election.
“It’s one more reason why the Senate should move quickly to advise and consent, to complete their work, and fill the seat on the Supreme Court because if there are controversies that arise, that go to the Supreme Court of the United States, the American people deserve to have nine justices on the court,” he said.
TRENDING: Diabetes Breakthrough Leaves Doctors Speechless - Try This Tonight
Failure raised the risk of “split decisions that don’t serve democracy,” he said.
“We have a time-honored tradition in this country of in-person voting and absentee ballot voting. And there are great safeguards, checks and balances to preserve the integrity of the vote,” he added.
;void(0);){kind=link}