Former VP Mike Pence Says He’d ‘Consider’ Invite to Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee
By Alison King, Matt Fortin and Marc Fortier, NBC10 Boston
Former Vice President Mike Pence said during a speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday morning that he would “consider” an invitation to testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
“Well, I would. If there’s an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” he said at the “Politics & Eggs” event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. “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, but as I’ve said, I don’t want to pre-judge. If there were ever any formal invitation rendered to us, we’d give it due consideration…”
Pence also referenced a possible 2024 presidential run Wednesday, saying, “I’ve never spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, but I may someday.”
He stressed the importance of forward-looking Republican candidates, saying, “we actually don’t need candidates that are simply reciting the problems.”
“The future’s bright if we focus on the future,” he said. “I know there are some that want to make this election about the past, but elections are always about the future.”
Pence also spoke about the recent FBI search at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, calling for “unprecedented transparency” from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“Look, it’s fairly well known that President Trump and I have had our differences. But after years during our administration that saw the politicization of the FBI, where during the tenure of Director Comey it was revealed that FBI agents were promoting political agendas in their official capacities, I was deeply troubled to learn that a search warrant had been executed at the personal residence of a former president of the United States,” he said. “I was overseas at the time traveling with my wife on vacation, but I still felt it was important to weigh in. And I called on Attorney General Garland to give the American people a full accounting of the reasons why this action was necessary.”
But Pence also said he wanted to remind Republicans that “The Republican Party is the party of law and order. Our party stands with the men and women who serve on the thin blue line at the federal and state and local level. And these attacks on the FBI must stop. Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police. The truth of the matter is we need to get to the bottom of what happened.”
Following his stop at Saint Anselm College on Wednesday morning, Pence was scheduled to make several other stops throughout the day, including in Meredith for a law enforcement roundtable and in Bretton Woods to be the keynote speaker for a GOP event.