Nancy Pelosi Is Reportedly Preparing For House Of Representatives To Select The Next President
In a Sunday letter to Democratic lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues in the House of Representatives to prepare for the possibility that they will be deciding the next United States president, Politico reported.
Per The Inquisitr, Pelosi’s Lower Chamber would decide the U.S. leader in the event that Donald Trump and Joe Biden both fail to secure enough Electoral College votes in the forthcoming election. From here, the Constitution’s 12th Amendment notes that the House is to immediately select a president by taking votes from each state House delegation. With the current numbers in Congress, the U.S. leader would win re-election.
In her letter, Pelosi sounded the alarm on such a scenario.
“The Constitution says that a candidate must receive a majority of the state delegations to win,” she wrote. “We must achieve that majority of delegations or keep the Republicans from doing so.”
As noted by Politico, the scenario would place more importance on Democrats winning states like Alaska and Montana, which the party has been competitive in despite them being traditionally Republican.
“Under the Constitution, the winner of the presidential election isn’t officially chosen until Congress certifies the Electoral College vote total on Jan. 6, 2021. That vote comes several days after the newly elected Congress is sworn in, meaning the delegation totals will change to reflect the winners of House races in November.”
As such, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a constitutional lawyer, acknowledged that some regions of the country have greater importance than simply getting a Democrat into the Lower Chamber.
Trump has also considered the scenario and highlighted the possibility at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“I think it’s 26 to 22 or something because it’s counted one vote per state, so we actually have an advantage,” he said.
CNN host Fareed Zakaria on Sunday highlighted that there are 26 Republican congressional delegations, 23 Democratic, and 1 tied.
As noted by Breitbart’s Joel B. Pollak, Democrats could deny the House a quorum to stall a possible Trump win. But the editor claimed that this tactic would be tough to sustain for an extended period of time. If Pelosi and the House could stall until January 20, the 20th Amendment deems that the vice president — which would be Mike Pence or Kamala Harris — becomes acting president. After this option, Pelosi is next in line. Forbes noted that the 12th Amendment states that Pelosi would remain in this position until a president is formally elected by the House.
