January 6 committee pushes back on Pence ‘closing the door’ on his potential testimony

CNN
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The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, on Wednesday pushed back on former Vice President Mike Pence’s recent comments that Congress has “no right” to his testimony and that he was “closing the door” on it.

“The Select Committee has proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engagement with Vice President Pence, so it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of our investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book,” said Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, who serve as the panel’s chair and vice chair, in a joint statement.

“The Select Committee has consistently praised the former Vice President’s refusal to bow to former President (Donald) Trump’s pressure to illegally refuse to count electoral votes on January 6th. But his recent statements about the Select Committee are not accurate,” they added.

In comments to CBS News, Pence put an end to the question of whether he would agree to speak with the committee before it wraps its investigation.

“I am closing the door on that, but I must say again, the partisan nature of the January 6 committee has been a disappointment to me,” the former vice president said, acknowledging that he did not stand in the way of members of his senior staff testifying before the panel.

CNN previously reported that Pence’s legal counsel had been in communication with the committee about whether he would testify. Over the summer, the panel dedicated one of its public hearings to the pressure campaign Pence faced in the lead up to US Capitol attack, which included testimony from some of his top aides.

In response to Pence’s recent comments, Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, and Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, said in their statement, “Our investigation has publicly presented the testimony of more than 50 Republican witnesses, including senior members of the Trump White House, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Justice Department.”

“This testimony, subject to criminal penalties for lying to Congress, was not ‘partisan.’ It was truthful,” they added.