Trump tells DC protest he pressured Pence to overturn election result: ‘If he does the right thing we win’

In a speech before a huge crowd in Washington, DC, Donald Trump said that if Mike Pence “does the right thing, we win this election”, referring to what he believes is the vice president’s role in Congress.

Mr Pence was due to preside over a joint session of both chambers of the legislature this afternoon to certify the results of the electoral college vote in favour of President-elect Joe Biden.

The president, who said he spoke with Mr Pence this morning, believes that the vice president can intervene to keep him in the White House, claiming a “top constitutional lawyer” said he has the right to throw out the results.

Mr Trump said he told the vice president that to fight the certification of the votes "doesn't take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing, and then we're stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot".

Continuing to make his baseless claims that the election was stolen from him, Mr Trump again blamed the coronavirus pandemic and mail-in votes for his loss.

He also lamented the “weak” and “pathetic” Republicans who have not backed his claims and his calls for overturning the result of the election.

“I helped them get in. I helped them get elected. I helped Mitch [McConnell] get elected. I could name... 24 of them, let's say. I won't bore you with it,” said the president.

He then said he would like to “primary the hell” out of those in his own party that did not back him, settling on referring to them as “weak Republicans”, coining a nickname in realtime during the speech.

Riling up the crowd, he described the late night vote counts after the 3 November election as “explosions of bulls**t”. The crowd chanted the word back at him.

The president also appeared to announce his intention to join crowds in a march towards the Capitol this afternoon to “cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”, then adding: “We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them…”

Just a few hours later, pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in an unprecedented assault on American democracy as the president remained in the White House. 

Later in his remarks, returning to speaking about Mr Pence, Mr Trump said it would be a sad day for the country if the vice president "doesn’t come through for us".

In a third call for vice president to not certify the electoral college, the crowd chanted “send them back” about the certified votes.

Mr Trump claimed that by confirming the electoral college results, Mike Pence would be supporting an “illegitimate” president. He later said he would be “very disappointed” if his deputy did not come through for him.

An Associated Press fact check confirms that the vice president has no authority to send election results back to the states for a do-over when he presides over the congressional tally of Electoral College votes.

President-elect Biden won 306 electoral college votes to Mr Trump’s 232.