Pence Calls Trump Wrong in Claiming Vice President Could Overturn Election Result

Former Vice President Mike Pence forcefully rejected former President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that Mr. Pence could have overturned the 2020 election outcome during the session of Congress that was interrupted by pro-Trump rioters.

“President Trump is wrong,” Mr. Pence said in a speech Friday. “The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

Mr. Pence oversaw the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory and ignored pressure by Mr. Trump to disallow some pivotal states’ results. He has maintained that the Constitution gives the vice president no authority to reject or return electoral votes, but his comments Friday were his most pointed on the matter.

In his speech at a Federalist Society event in Florida, Mr. Pence also said the GOP must accept the 2020 result and look to the future, a contrast with Mr. Trump’s continued false claims that the election was rigged.

“I had no right to change the outcome of our election, and Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024,” he said, referring to the current Democratic vice president.

The remarks came as the Republican Party is split over Mr. Trump’s past actions and future influence over the party, headed into a midterm election in which the GOP hopes to regain control of Congress. Just hours before Mr. Pence’s speech, Republicans rebuked two House lawmakers for serving on the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as the GOP continues to grapple with Mr. Trump’s failed effort to block the result.