UNCOOPERATIVE: Why Mike Pence REFUSES to testify to House Select Committee on January 6th
In a move that’s shocking to almost no one, former Vice President Mike Pence says he won’t testify before the January 6th House Select Committee, telling CBS reporter Margaret Brennan, “Congress has no right to my testimony.”
Pence’s decision comes despite the fact that he was a target of the MAGA mob that ex-President Donald Trump incited to breach the Capitol, something highlighted during the investigative panel’s televised hearings – which included testimony from his attorney Greg Jacobs and former Chief of Staff Marc Short.
His reasoning?
That the committee is partisan in nature.
“The partisan nature of the January 6 Committee has been a disappointment to me. It seemed to me, in the beginning, there was an opportunity to examine every aspect of what happened on January 6. And to do so more in the spirit of the 9/11 commission – non-partisan, non-political – and that was an opportunity lost.”
“From the time the Jan. 6 was formed, and every member was appointed by the Democrat Speaker of the House, I was concerned,” Pence told Brennan.
Watch the clip below.
“I served for 12 years in the Congress, it’s inconceivable to me that one party would appoint every member of a committee in Congress,” he said. “That’s antithetical to the whole idea of the committee system.”
“We have a separation of powers under the Constitution of the United States and I believe it would establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a Vice President of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House,” Pence concluded.
One huge — and important — difference between the 9/11 commission and the House Select Committee is that the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, was executed by foreign terrorists, while the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol on January 6th was planned and executed by supporters of the then-President of the United States – spurred by not only Donald Trump but several members of the GOP.
Erecting makeshift gallows and shouting “Hang Mike Pence” while the Vice President and his family were taken to an undisclosed and safe location, rioters came within 40 feet of the former Indiana Governor, but apparently, that’s not enough to compel the devout Evangelical to help the Committee hold those who put – not just his life, but that of his wife and daughter – accountable.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gave Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) the opportunity to nominate members of the Republican Party for consideration, and he chose poorly.
Three of McCarthy’s five picks — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), and ranking member Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) — voted against certifying the election results.
Though Pence did his duty — resisting his boss’s aggressive attempts to pressure the then-Vice President into violating the Electoral Count Act by overturning or delaying the count confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s win — he has been less than cooperative with the investigation into events and actions preceding the Capitol riot, and the day itself.
Despite his stonewalling, MAGA is done with him, and so is the rest of America.
BREAKING: Former Vice President Mike Pence tells CBS News that he's "closing the door" on testifying before the Jan. 6 committee. “Congress has no right to my testimony,” he tells @margbrennan. pic.twitter.com/E5IVtwrscY
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 16, 2022
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