Will Nancy Pelosi become president on Jan 6? Pro-Trump journalist says possible, even if temporarily
All eyes are on January 6 at the moment as the Congress will meet to count the Electoral College (EC) votes that have already affirmed Joe Biden as the president-elect. President Donald Trump has contested the election results claiming that they have been stolen by widespread voter fraud and his allies in Congress have already planned to disrupt the counting of the EC votes in a bid to overturn the results.
Could the joint session of the Congress see Trump reversing the outcome of the 2020 election or will Biden’s victory be cemented by the legislature and the former vice president will emerge as the 46th president on January 20? For many, January 6 will be the date that will settle the chaos but there are also others who feel the story has more to offer.
JD Rucker, the editor-in-chief of NOQ Report, wrote in a piece in his outlet on Friday, January 1, that the real deadline to the election deadlock falls on January 20 and not 6 as it is being said. He cited the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution which says the terms of the president and vice president shall come to an end at noon on January 20. According to Rucker, the matter doesn’t end on January 6 if the Congress and Vice President Mike Pence, who is the head of the Senate and will preside over the joint session, fail to change the outcome of the November 3 election. According to him, there could also be a scenario where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could become the president of the US, albeit temporarily.
Roles of state legislatures, Congress & VP Pence
In the words of Rucker: “Three avenues for remedy of the situation close on that day. Action can be taken to correct electors by state legislatures, Congress, the President of the Senate/VP, or the Supreme Court.” He then explains each of the three scenarios.
“State legislatures can correct their electors and while there are currently several attempts to do so in contested states, nothing has been solidified yet. Even with Republican majorities in state legislatures of most contested states, the appetite for action seems too low. They need a majority to act and a willingness to invoke their constitutionally protected plenary power over electors that supersedes state laws to the point that if they choose, they can call themselves into session without their governor’s approval. This can still happen,” Rucker said in his piece.
On the role of the Congress, the author said: “Congress can act. It has been well covered by many, including NOQ Report, how that process would work. Constitutional ambiguity is in play, but one thing seems to be agreed upon despite ill-worded statutes and the 12th Amendment. If one Senator and one Representative object to a slate of electors, the two chambers split to debate amongst themselves. If a majority is reached in both chambers (and some would say only one chamber is required), then the electors are either discarded altogether or they can be replaced by the alternates. This, too, can still happen, but it seems unlikely unless the “MOAB“—Mother Of All Bombshells—drops before January 6th.”
On the role of Pence, Rucker said as the presiding officer, the VP has a wide range of potential actions. “One that few have discussed is that he can call for evidence to be heard before or even during the counting of the electors. It seems unlikely that Pence wants to do anything at all. I hope I’m wrong, or more accurately, I hope I was right about him before, that he’s an honorable and faithful man who will do what’s right.”
But there is a fourth possibility, according to Rucker
But there is also another possibility, Rucker said.
The pro-Trump author said in his piece that the 20th Amendment speaks about the day the outgoing administration’s time ends but doesn’t say when the next one begins. He said it is possible that the Supreme Court (Rucker feels the SCOTUS hasn’t yet acted on the case the way people would have wanted it to) could chip in to suspend the inauguration till the cases are determined and that could lead to a strange outcome.
“President Trump will leave office, but Joe Biden will not take his place. In that scenario, the Speaker of the House would become acting president of the United States until the Supreme Court releases either President Trump or Biden to officially assume office. That may sound terrifying having Nancy Pelosi as president for a little while, but it would only be temporary,” Rucker, a conservative and limited-government federalist, said. He even took an indirect dig at Biden by calling him the guy of the Chinese Communist Party.
Section Three of the 20th Amendment says: “If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the president-elect shall have died, the vice president-elect shall become president. If a president shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the president-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the vice president-elect shall act as president until a president shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a president-elect nor a vice-president shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as president, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a president or vice president shall have qualified.”