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In late January 2022, a remarkable statement, attributed to former U.S. President Donald Trump, was shared widely on social media. In it, the Republican appeared to explicitly state that back in 2020 and 2021, he had hoped his erstwhile vice president, Mike Pence, would overturn the election Trump lost to Joe Biden. For example, on Jan. 30 the conservative columnist Bill Kristol posted what appeared to be a screenshot of Trump's statement, and added: The statement was also shared by CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, and Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger — who described it as a massively un-American statement — among others. In full, the statement read: The statement had not appeared on Trump's official website — where his public remarks are routinely published — by the morning of Jan. 31, which cast reasonable doubt on its authenticity and provenance. However, it was posted to Twitter by Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington, a strong sign it was genuine, and later on Jan. 31, the statement was finally posted to Trump's own website, definitively establishing its authenticity. Trump appears to have been referring to ongoing discussions among some Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate over possible changes to the Electoral Count Act, which would clarify the purely administrative role of the vice president in overseeing the certification of electoral college vote counts and confirming the result of the presidential election — the procedure that was disrupted by the attack on the U.S. Capitol by some Trump supporters, on Jan. 6, 2021. Speaking to ABC News on Jan. 30, moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine described the talks over potential changes to the law:
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