Former Vice President Mike Pence will not be present when the House of Representatives committee held a prime-time hearing on Thursday (January 6th), but he will be a key figure as the committee makes its first public presentation of what happened before and during of the Capitol riots.
Pence did not cooperate directly with the committee, but some of his former associates did. In recent months, there has been a steady stream of new details about Pence’s actions on January 6, 2021, and he has publicly rebuked former President Trump for saying the election was stolen.
“I expect to hear about Mike Pence on Thursday night. You can’t tell the story without him, “said Norm Eisen, who was a special adviser to Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment.
Pence’s role in verifying the results of the Electoral College on January 6, 2021, hours after hundreds of pro-Trump rebels stormed the Capitol, became a major point in investigating the events of the day and in Republican politics in general.
Representative Jamie Ruskin (D-Md.), A member of the House of Representatives committee investigating Jan. 6, stressed the importance of Pence’s refusal to leave the Capitol because the rebels were inside the building, suggesting it would allow the Allies of Trump to carry out his plan in Pence’s absence.
The New York Times reported late last month that at least one witness told the committee that Trump had responded favorably to chants calling for Pence to be hanged.
And the Times also reported in recent days that former Pence chief of staff Mark Short had warned the Secret Service the day before the uprising to warn of potential risks to Pence’s security if Trump publicly turned against his vice president.
The Commission is likely to make the Pence threat a central part of its public presentation, as it seeks to attract public attention and expose the gravity of the situation.
The Washington Post reported that Michael Lutig, a conservative lawyer who advised Pence to perform his duties on Jan. 6, and former Pence associates Mark Short and Greg Jacob are among those expected to testify at the hearings. in prime time on Thursday.
Eisen said showing how Pence rejected some of the legal arguments devised by Trump’s advisers would help reject attempts by the Republican Party to dismiss the commission’s findings as biased.
“So the other way Pence comes in is as a dose of reality in response to these crazy legal theories circulating. So this is an important part of the story, “Eisen said.
Pence himself is increasingly inclined to break with Trump over the events of January 6, in particular, as he outlines his own path after the White House.
The former vice president has repeatedly called January 6 a “dark day” in history and spoke of respecting his constitutional duty in remarks to various conservative groups since leaving office.
As Trump continued to refute claims that the 2020 election was rigged, Pence went a step further. In February, Pence explicitly said Trump was wrong, suggesting he could overturn the result of the presidential election.
“According to the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our elections. And Kamala Harris will not have the right to cancel the election when we win it in 2024, “Pence said at the time.
Yet Pence has personally kept the commission at arm’s length since January 6 in public.
In October, Pence suggested that the media was focusing on the riot so broadly as to divert attention from the Biden administration’s difficulties in withdrawing from Afghanistan and other domestic issues.
And while former aides such as Short and Keith Kellogg have testified before the commission behind closed doors, Pence himself is still not facing the commission.
A Pence spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, including whether there was any communication between Pence and the committee.
“We wanted to make sure we were getting as much information as possible from as many material witnesses as possible,” Ruskin said Monday at a Washington Post Live event when asked about Pence’s prospect of testifying.
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“We want to know exactly what happened. And Vice President Pence was obviously the target of this political attack on January 6, so we need to fill in the details as much as possible about what happened there. ”
Asked if Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6, Ruskin urged the public to get involved on Thursday night.
“Watch the hearings,” Ruskin said. “The hearings will tell the story of what happened that day.”
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