Jan. 6 committee pushes back against Mike Pence’s claim Congress has 'no right' to his testimony

On November 15, Simon & Schuster released former Vice President Mike Pence’s new book, “So Help Me God,” which he promoted by granting CBS News an interview. Pence, during the interview, chose his words carefully; Pence indicated that he is open to supporting someone other than Donald Trump as a 2024 presidential candidate, saying that Republicans have other options.

But Pence didn’t go out of his way to criticize the former president, who has officially announced his 2024 campaign. And Pence described the January 6 select committee as “partisan,” inspiring conservative Rep. Liz Cheney to call him out.

Pence, during the interview, said the January 6 committee had “no right” to his testimony about the events of January 6, 2021.

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The former vice president told CBS News, “Congress has no right to my testimony on separation of powers under the Constitution of the United States. And I believe it will 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 told CBS News he is “closing the door” on the possibility of testifying before the January 6 committee.

“But I must say, again, the partisan nature of the January 6 committee has been a disappointment to me,” Pence said during the interview. “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.”

But Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, disagreed with Pence’s use of the word “partisan” to describe the January 6 committee. They responded that the committee was “not partisan” but rather, was “truthful.”

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Cheney, Thompson and others have a limited amount of time to finish their work on the January 6 committee. Although Democrats kept their U.S. Senate majority in the 2022 midterms, they narrowly lost their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. And in 2023, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will replace Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

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