Following the developments in the ongoing investigation by the Jan. 6 committee, there have been growing calls for former vice president Mike Pence to testify. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who serves on the committee, said that Pence needs to come forward about his former boss’s attempt to stage a coup following the 2020 elections.
Raskin appeared on MSNBC Friday last week and weighed in on the former vice president’s public rebuke of the twice-impeached former president, saying that Trump was “wrong” for claiming that he had the authority to overturn the election results. Raskin suggested that what Pence did was not as “courageous” compared to the consistent public rebuke given by Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, who now also serves in the Jan. 6 committee.
“Mike Pence should be out there saying that it is a scandal that Donald Trump is out there dangling pardons in front of hundreds or perhaps thousands of people who participated in the insurrection,” said Raskin. “He should be calling out the fact that Donald Trump is trying to replace Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger with Jody Hice, and he’s trying to systematically eliminate anybody in the Republican Party who refused to do his bidding in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6.”
Raskin added that Pence should “step it up,” noting that he is becoming an outcast from his own political party for re-stating that he did not have the authority to overturn the election results. Raskin also said that Pence may as well come forward with the whole truth, especially when his life was being threatened during the insurrection, with Trump supporters calling for the now-former vice president to be hanged.
Meanwhile, Pence’s top aide Marc Short also appeared to refute the talking points made by the Republican National Committee regarding the insurrection. The RNC called the Capitol insurrection – which left five people dead and dozens injured – a “legitimate political discourse.”
During an interview on NBC, Short, who was with Pence at the Capitol when the insurrection took place, disagreed with the RNC and said that from where he was at the time, he did not see “a lot of legitimate political discourse.” Short was previously reported to be cooperating with the congressional committee since receiving a subpoena.