to trump s wishes to block the certification of the election, to overturn election results to leave trump in power or render the election results unknowable, but it was not apparently for lack of trying to do that. from woodward and costa, quote, in late december pence phoned former vice president dan quail. at 74 the once boyish looking quail was living the private golf playing life he loved in arizona. the two men shared a unique profile. pence phoned because he wanted advice. despite the electoral college casting votes for biden back on december 14th trump was convinced that pence could somehow throw the election to trump on january 6th when congress met to certify the final count. pence explained to his fellow indianaen dan quail that trump was pressuring him to intervene. and push the election to a vote in the house of representatives. if thrown to the house there was
a twist. and trump was fixated on this twist pence said. it was the provision that could theoretically at least keep trump in power. while the democrats held the current house majority the 12th amendment of the constitution stated voting on a contested election wouldn t be done by a simple majority vote in the house. instead the amendment said the election vote would be counted in blocks with one vote per state. republicans controlled more delegations in the house of representatives meaning trump would likely win if the house chamber ended up deciding the victor based on the prescripts of that amendment. former vice president quail said thought that was preposterous and dangerous. quail told mike pence, quote, mike you have no flexibility on this, none, zero, forget it, put it away. pence said in reply, i know.
publicly assuaging and placating your boss, if you re rely commit today rule of law but you re just trying to make trump less mad at you it s gagoing to hurt to call dan quail. you don t call dan quail just to appease trump. what s being described in this new book is the action of a man who is genuinely searching for a way he could do what trump wants. in that conversation later recounted with dan quail woodward and costa reported pence even raises the rospect there were real problems and the vote count in arizona if maybe that was enough of a pretext to justify not certifying the entire election and thereby setting the stage to the house of representatives or republicans in the house would ensure trump would lose power. and this new book makes clear
that s what i ve been trying to tell trump but he really thinks he can. and there are other guys in there saying i ve got this power. i ve interrupted him. you don t, just stop he said. it was easy for quail to make blanket statement from political winter. he wanted to know whether there was a glimmer of light legally or constitutionally and quail repeated forget it. pence finally agreed acting to overturn the election would be antthetical to his traditional view of conservatism. one man could not effectively throw the election to the house of representatives. quail told pence to let it go. mike, don t even talk about it he said. pence paused, you don t know the position i m in, he said. even if you re someone like mike pence who s very invested in