Former Vice President Mike Pence voiced an openness to testifying before the Jan. 6 select committee tasked with investigating the deadly riot at the Capitol during a Politics & Eggs breakfast in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday morning.
Pence — who was subjected to threats on Jan. 6 due to his decision to certify the election results, with the former vice president having to be evacuated to a secure location on the Capitol campus during the attack — added that while he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of testifying, he would have to weigh the decision heavily in advance, noting it would be unprecedented.
“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” Pence said. “It would be unprecedented in history for a vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill, but as I’ve said, I don’t wanna prejudge. Under the Constitution, we have three co-equal branches of government, and any invitation that’d be directed to me, I’d have to reflect on the unique role I was serving in as vice president.”
Pence went on to condemn calls from some pro-Trump lawmakers to defund the FBI in the wake of federal agents executing a search warrant at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into alleged mishandling of presidential records, some of which may have been classified nuclear documents.
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“Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police,” he continued, calling for the Justice Department and attorney general to release more information on the raid.
Pence’s comments come as speculation grows over whether he will seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, potentially leading to a battle between him and Trump in a primary.
Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short, who recently testified before the select panel, described the circumstances they faced as a “ liability and danger” that could have “been a massacre in the Capitol.”
“I think that having the Capitol ransacked the way that it was, I think, did present liability and danger,” he told ABC News in a recent interview.
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“And I think the Secret Service did a phenomenal job that day. I think that the bigger risk, and, despite the way perhaps it was characterized in the hearings last week, candidly, is that if the mob had gotten closer to the vice president, I do think there would have been a massacre in the Capitol that day.”
The panel is expected to continue its inquiry, including adding additional public hearings when the House returns from its August recess.
