Former Vice President Mike Pence "did his constitutional duty" last Jan. 6 when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election, rather than overturning them, Sen. John Barrasso, who voted to certify the election, said Sunday.
"It's not the Congress that elects the president; it's the American people," the Wyoming Senator said on "Fox News Sunday," while disagreeing with former President Donald Trump's continued insistence that Pence could have overturned the election.
His comments come after Pence told a meeting of the Federalist Society on Friday that Trump is "wrong" by claiming he had the right to overturn the election, drawing more fire from Trump.
Barrasso, though, said he does hope Trump and Pence can work out their differences.
"We are better as a party when we are unified and we are united certainly here in Wyoming about what this current administration is doing with regard to high prices, inflation, and open border, crime, and the cities," said the senator. "People of Wyoming are fed up, as they are all across the country with what's happening today and my focus is on the future, taking back the House, taking back the Senate, and the 2022 elections, not the 2020 elections."
He continued that people in his state are not speaking about the past.
"I've been at 15 events in Wyoming in the last week," he said. "Last night, with 800 people at a Boys & Girls Club dinner, this never came up. People are concerned about empty shelves at the grocery store, high prices for gasoline, an open southern border with criminals, all of these people coming across, crime in the cities. People in Wyoming want me to focus on the future, not the past. That is where I'm focusing."
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee last week censured Barrasso's fellow Wyoming lawmaker, Rep. Liz Cheney, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for their role in the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents, and Barrasso said he does disagree with the committee and voted against it and twice against impeaching Trump.
"We are going to have a very spirited primary here," he said. "Liz is going to have to travel the state and make her case to the voters of Wyoming if she intends to get reelected."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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