Just pure vile evilness from Rasmussen, and incredibly irresponsible. No, Mike Pence does not have the power to subvert democracy by rejecting Electoral College results. And then they used that awful, but sometimes accurate quote when referring to authoritarian regimes like Putin's Russia where subverting democracy is normal. We're not them, nor are we Stalin's Soviet Union. Not yet anyway.
Source: The Hill
Republican-leaning pollster Rasmussen invoked a quote attributed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a Twitter thread Sunday suggesting Vice President Pence could attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.
“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything. – Stalin,” the pollster tweeted, before going on to outline a scenario in which Pence refuses to certify the results in swing states.
Supporters of President Trump have made similar arguments that Pence, as president of the Senate, has the power to reject Electoral College results.
However, the theory is based on a misreading of U.S. code that simply authorizes the vice president to call on states to submit their electoral votes if they do not do so by the fourth Wednesday in December, according to The Washington Post.
At that moment, the Presidency will be in his hands.
And there is nothing stopping Pence, under the (plenary and unappealable) authority vested in him as President of the Senate, from declining to open and count the certificates from the six disputed states.
2/4— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
Per the 12th Amendment: "[T]he votes shall then be counted[.] ... The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President[.]"
Reader comments?
4/4
More here - https://t.co/ehnnu84Lgi— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
As for Rasmussen, they just laughed the criticism off.
LOL. The usual partisan hacks are feigning upset that our analysis & commentary piece from Alexander Macris yesterday included a top quote from Stalin. Well it does. The hacks don't want you to READ that commentary. They'd much rather finger us as Staninists. What a sad bunch. https://t.co/MjSlkFQyP8 pic.twitter.com/G4OuGwPKP9
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 28, 2020
A special place in hell should be reserved for such assholes.
