US Vice President Mike Pence, in defiance of President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that he will not intervene to stop the certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.
"The Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not," Pence said in a statement released as a joint session of Congress began to certify the Electoral College votes from the November 3 election.
The statement was released as Trump urged Pence at a rally in Washington to decline to certify the Electoral College results.