Donald Trump Stirs Social Media With False Claim Pence Can Overturn Biden Victory

President Donald Trump took over Twitter's "trending topics" section on Tuesday with the false claim: "The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors." Before long, the top trending phrase of the day was "NO HE DOES NOT." This simple retort consumed Americans for the morning.

Trump's tweet referred to the U.S. Congress' upcoming vote to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which the vice president has "a crucial but largely ceremonial role," according to a report by The New York Times. Despite what Trump said, the vice president — in this case, Mike Pence — does not have any explicit constitutional power to overturn an election when it reaches this phase. Instead, the VP is expected to act as "the master of ceremonies rather than arbiter of outcome," as journalist Michael S. Schmidt put it. Congress is merely tallying the votes from the Electoral College, none of which have been overturned in spite of dozens of recounts, audits, investigations and lawsuits from Trump.

The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2021

The vice president serves as the president of the United States Senate, giving him the job of overseeing that legislature's biggest tasks. Counting electoral votes is among them, although Trump was severely misconstruing the constitutional power of the office in his tweet on Tuesday.

It was not hard for Americans to fact check this claim, either. While die-hard supporters bought into Trump's false interpretation of the law, his critics began posting myriad resources for debunking this claim. Many also raged at him for discrediting the democratic process in this way, while others posted jokes and memes about the uncanny situation. Here is a look at how social media responded overall.