Mike Pence says he’d consider testifying before January 6 committee if invited

By Athena Jones, CNN

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he would consider testifying before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol if he were invited.

Pence made the remarks at a “Politics and Eggs” breakfast in New Hampshire.

“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” he said. “We have three co-equal branches of government. And any invitation to be directed to me, I’d have to reflect on the unique role I was serving in as vice president. It would be unprecedented in history for a vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill.”

The January 6 committee detailed at a public hearing in June how former President Donald Trump tried to pressure Pence, his vice president, to join in his scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election — and how Pence’s refusal put his life in danger as rioters called for his hanging on January 6, 2021.

Two witnesses who advised Pence that he did not have the authority to subvert the election testified during the June 16 hearing: former Pence attorney Greg Jacob and retired Republican judge J. Michael Luttig.

The committee walked through how conservative Trump attorney John Eastman put forward a legal theory that Pence could unilaterally block certification of the election — a theory that was roundly rejected by Trump’s White House attorneys and Pence’s team but nevertheless was embraced by the former President.

In a videotaped deposition, which was played on June 16, Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, said the vice president advised Trump “many times” that he didn’t have the legal or constitutional authority to overturn the results while presiding over the joint session of Congress on January 6 to count the electoral votes.

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CNN’s Rachel Janfaza contributed to this report.