Dem
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GOP
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If debate moderator Sean Hannity wants to make the first Republican debate even a bit interesting, a question he might ask each candidate is: "If you were in Mike Pence's position on Jan. 6, 2021, would you have sent the electoral votes of Arizona and Georgia back to the state legislatures so they could try again?" The fun part would be watching the candidates squirm.
Vivek Ramaswamy gave a preview on Friday when a reporter asked him that. He said: "I would have never let it get to that point. I would have never put myself—or been part of an administration, if I was in a serious position of leadership—to ever have allowed us to have gotten to that doorstep." What the hell does that mean? If he were vice president (and thus president of the Senate), his constitutional duty would have been to preside over the counting of the electoral votes. Would he have done it or not? The President of the Senate doesn't have the option of not showing up. Would he have called in sick on Jan. 6 or what?
We suspect that none of the candidates would like to answer that question. Saying that they would have let the count simply proceed will infuriate all of Trump's supporters. Saying that they would have sent some of the electoral votes back to the states would imply that they were fine with a coup. That might help in the primary but would be absolutely deadly in the general election if they got that far. (V)