I don't know how closely you've been following this, but it's become abundantly clear that Pence would have totally gone along with it if he thought it had a hope in hell of it working. "You might as well make your case to Queen Elizabeth II. Congress can't do this. You're wasting your time," Lee said to Trump's lawyers trying to overturn the results in Georgia, according to the book. Here's a compilation of perpetual motion machines.In the end, Pence didn't go along with Eastman's scheme, concluding that the Constitution did not give him any power beyond counting the Electoral College votes. He did his own consultations before January 6, according to the book, reaching out to former Vice President Dan Quayle and the Senate parliamentarian, who were both clear in telling him he had no authority beyond counting the votes.
"Peril," which will be released Tuesday, details how Eastman's memo was sent to GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and how Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani tried to convince fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina of election fraud. But both Lee and Graham scoffed at the arguments and found they had no merit.
Oh absolutely. I hold no belief that Pence is any sort of white knight, or anything. My concern is that now - with all we know - there were far WORSE and less credible decisions made that day. Presented with the same option TODAY, I suspect Pence would have created a "Contested" category for Electors from those States, and simply done the electoral math with fewer than 50 states worth of Electors.
Doesn't matter. The country is governed far more by custom than by law - this was used to great effect by the Trump administration, who happily disregarded custom and dared people to punish them by law. Custom, however, was trending heavily against the Trump administration by January 6th, to where even lickspittles like Kevin McCarthy were begging Trump to call off his bullshit. Had Pence made a move, it would have pushed things from "a bunch of yahoos that we really should have taken more seriously" to coup d'etat with Pence being the guy visibly attempting to overthrow the government. All his "are you sure I can't do this?" to Dan Quayle (because of course Dick Cheney isn't about to return his calls) weren't an attempt to find legality. They were an assessment of his personal liability, and it was found to be boundless.
It would have been to no one's benefit to have to watch Pelosi kick all the Republicans out of the House, because without a majority of electors, the House's view would be that they get to decide the election, even if the administration's POV was that only the electors they liked counted. At least this saga has gotten us all to think more creatively about what is possible when you're dealing with people who have no principles, conscience, or shame.