“I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence said in a speech in California.
He noted that the vice-president has no constitutional power to throw out a presidential result submitted to the US Congress by the states, or send the votes back to the states in rejection.
Pence contradicted “those in our party” who think that “any one person” could select the president, without mentioning Trump directly.
“The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,” he said.
He called the insurrection a “dark day in the history of the United States Capitol”, following which 500 people have been arrested in the biggest US crime investigation since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.