Ex-Vice President Mike Pence says he might agree to appear before Jan. 6 committee
By Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he might agree to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, a potentially huge breakthrough for the panel probing the attack on the Capitol.
After refusing to discuss a possible appearance for more than a year, Pence said he would “consider” a formal request from the committee.
“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” Pence said at a morning political event in Manchester, N.H.
Pence qualified his response by noting that he would have to consider what he called the “unprecedented” nature of a vice president testifying before the congressional committee.
“I would have to reflect on the unique role I was serving in,” Pence said.
If Pence were to appear, it would mark by far the biggest blockbuster yet for the panel, which has unearthed a series of damaging revelations about former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
Pence, whose top aides have already testified, staunchly resisted Trump’s bully campaign to get him to refuse to certify the results of the electoral college on Jan. 6.
When Pence would not go along with Trump’s Big Lie, the then-president’s extremist supporters sought to hunt him down inside the Capitol, chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and setting up a mock gallows.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee chairman, said several months ago that the committee planned to ask Pence to testify.
But the panel never made a formal request for Pence’s testimony, perhaps as part of delicate talks to secure the appearances of his top aides, ex-Chief of Staff Marc Short and counsel Greg Jacob.
The panel is on a hiatus but is expected to hold more hearings after Labor Day.
Short and Jacob gave gripping testimony about their ex-boss’s bravery in the face of the mob attack including Pence’s refusal to leave the Capitol for fear of showing weakness to a nation on edge.
The ex-veep himself could offer an unrivaled account of Trump’s effort to cling to power despite losing the 2020 election and to block the peaceful transfer of power to President Biden.
Pence makes no secret that he plans to run for the White House in 2024 as illustrated by his speech in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire.
Trump also says he is preparing to launch a comeback presidential bid, putting the two men on a potential collision course in a Republican primary.