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Pence will not try to block Biden's electors

Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith joins Kristin Myers to break down the latest on the Electoral College vote, as Vice President Mike Pence says he will not try to block Biden's electors.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: But I want to start with checking in with what's happening on the Hill to kick off today's show. Joint session of Congress is starting, and it's expected that Republican senators are going to pose some sort of challenge to the certification of those Electoral College votes.

We have Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith here with all of those details. Hey, Jess.

JESSICA SMITH: Hey, Kristin. Just in the past few minutes, we did get a letter from Vice President Pence, and he says that he is not going to try and block Biden's electors. You know that President Trump has been pushing him over the past couple of days saying that he has the authority to reject the electors, but that is not the case. And now Pence in a new letter today says, "It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not." He goes on to say that he's going to make sure that the objections are considered properly, but he's not going to try and reject those electoral votes outright.

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So here's a reminder of how all of this works. In just a few minutes, things are going to get started. The House and Senate will join for a joint session. They will be there with Vice President Pence. He will be presiding over this entire process.

Then the electoral votes from each state will be read in alphabetical order. Lawmakers can object to the findings from those states. If there is an objection, then the House and Senate will split. They will, for up to two hours each, debate those objections.

Then they have to vote. They have to agree with a simple majority and to accept that objection. We do not expect that to happen.

So then after we get through all of the states, the process will actually be wrapped up, and this whole process of electing the next president will officially be over, even though we already know what the outcome is going to be. The process is just going to be dragged out as Republican lawmakers object here.

And we don't know exact timing, but Senator Blunt just told reporters that McConnell has indicated that at least three states will have some objections. That could take several hours for each state. So this could be a while before we actually get through the process.

We've also been hearing from President Trump today, again at a rally making those false claims about election fraud. He did say a few minutes ago that we will be headed to the Capitol, though not sure what President Trump is planning to do there if he does plan to go to the Capitol. We're going to have to get more on that. But he said we in that rally just a few minutes ago.

So lots to watch here in Washington. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we learn more throughout the day.

KRISTIN MYERS: Of course. And, Jess, we'll be coming back to you a little bit later in the show, so of course we'll be getting all of the updates there. But an important point that you're making there. This is largely political theater that is not going to change the outcome of this election.

We'll see you a little on-- a little bit later on in the show. Thanks so much for all of those updates.