Mike Pence slammed Donald Trump on Friday for the latter’s recent assertions regarding the 2020 election, and against my better judgment, I’m here to give you the low down.

Pence was speaking at the Federalist Society when he spoke to the idea that he could have overturned the 2020 election results. His response was firm, as he proclaimed Trump “wrong,” saying that the “presidency belongs to the American people.”

Here’s what that sounded like.

NEW from Pence: "President Trump is wrong"

"I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone." pic.twitter.com/sarsYwpfSW

— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) February 4, 2022

Before we get to Pence’s comments, let’s get my point of view on the record.

Do I believe the 2020 election was fair? No, I don’t. We know for a fact that social media companies actively colluded to suppress negative coverage of Joe Biden. Further, numerous election law changes in states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were, in my view, unconstitutional. In fact, two recent court decisions in those states have stated that.

Then, there was the issue of ballot harvesting and mass mail-in voting that came via haphazard, unnecessary election changes being put into effect due to COVID-19. People could protest in the streets for George Floyd, but we couldn’t expect them to show up and vote? Past that, the presidential debates were so heavily tilted toward Joe Biden that not a single question on foreign policy, the strongest part of Trump’s presidential record, got asked. There are many more examples I could give.

In short, I believe there’s more than enough evidence that the deck was stacked.

Still, sometimes moving to a different battlefield is the only way to win the war. I personally do not believe the Vice President has the right to unilaterally change the outcome of the presidential election. In fact, such an idea seems insane to me. I don’t want any official from any party having that kind of power. If there are suspicions of fraud, then it needs to be exposed at the state level and litigated. Our voting systems are decentralized for a reason, and that’s a very good thing.

Past that, if the idea is that Pence should have sent the results back to the states, I find that argument unconvincing as well. Even assuming he had that power, what was that going to accomplish? Pennsylvania was not going to change its results. Georgia was not going to change its results. All that would have done is give credence to the “coup” narrative. Running off a political cliff is a sure-fire way to go splat, not to accomplish anything.

Now, we sit in the year 2022, with a major midterm approaching and one shot to stop the bleeding the Biden presidency has caused. Regardless of whether one likes Pence or not, everyone should ask themselves what’s the smart play here? Is it to keep fighting over an election that is in the books and is not changing, or is it to focus completely on solidifying election security in states where Republicans hold power? The clock is ticking, and no matter how angry one may be about it, intraparty fighting over the 2020 election is a path to nowhere.

Further, it’s exactly what the Democrats want. They want January 6th to remain a national obsession. They want to be able to marginalize Republicans by having them fight over procedural questions that are no longer even relevant. The only way to victory is to move past the losses you can’t get back, whether one believes they came fairly or not. A GOP that is focused on destroying Democrats in the next election terrifies the left, and I’ve got no mind to ease their fears heading into the midterms.