WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – President Trump’s doomed effort to overturn the election results is all but certain to come to an end Wednesday with Congress set to certify Joe Biden’s victory despite objections from over 100 House and Senate Republicans. But that hasn’t stopped the president from venting his anger over his defeat, with Trump set to address thousands of his supporters at a rally.
On Capitol Hill, Congress is set to deal a fatal blow to President Trump’s undemocratic efforts to overturn the election results.
With two weeks until Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president, lawmakers are expected to make his victory official, ratifying the electoral vote count despite objections from at least 13 Republican senators and more than 100 House members.
Vice President Pence will preside over Wednesday’s joint session of Congress.
Overnight the president said in a statement: “The vice president and I are in total agreement that the vice president has the power to act.”
In fact, the Constitution says that’s not true. Pence cannot change the outcome.
Facing the ultimate Trump loyalty test, a person close to Pence told NBC News, “The vice president thinks it is his job to follow the Constitution and the law.”
The president, who met with Pence for lunch Tuesday, singled him out Monday night.
Trump said, “I hope that our great vice president comes through for us. Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him quite as much.”
For now, Pence is publicly indulging the president’s baseless claims of voter fraud.
“Come this Wednesday,” he said, “we’ll have our day in Congress, we’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence!”
Those objections to come from Republican members who say they will reject the certification of Biden’s win, a move that could extend the drama, but doesn’t have the expected votes to pass.
Republican Ted Cruz is defending the effort. He said, “We have an obligation, I believe, to protect the integrity of the election and to protect the integrity of the democratic system.”
Republican Tim Scott, one of more than two-dozen GOP senators who will not object, wrote: “There is no constitutionally viable means for the Congress to overturn an election” already certified by the states.
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