Jake Tapper to Pence on Refusal to Testify: ‘Certainly Understand That Argument’ But GOP Rejected Bipartisan Jan. 6 Probe

CNN anchor Jake Tapper gave former Vice President Mike Pence the chance to explain his refusal to testify before the January 6 Committee and said he “understands” Pence’s reasoning but offered a key fact to “button up” the response.

Pence was given an hour-long “Town Hall” event on CNN to mark the occasion of the publication of his book, during which audience members asked questions with Tapper as the moderator.

But Tapper also stepped in to ask questions, including an exchange about Pence’s comments in an earlier interview, in which he told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan “Congress has no right to my testimony,” and confirmed he won’t testify.

Tapper pushed back on Pence’s lengthy rationale, then moved on after telling him, “Certainly understand that argument,” but pointing out a huge flaw in Pence’s argument one more time:

TAPPER: I want to ask you a question because earlier today you told Margaret Brennan of CBS that you’re closing the door on being willing to testify before the January 6th Committee and you had some criticism for them, for the committee and the January 6th Committee just before we went on air released a statement in response and they write in part, quote, “The Select Committee has proceeded respectively and responsibly in our engagement with Vice President Pence,” they note that they’ve praised you for what you did on January 6th. But they go onto say it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book. I want to give you a chance to respond.

PENCE: Well, it’s not the first sharp elbow I’ve gotten on Capitol Hill. Look, I made the comment today that I, I was disappointed when the January 6th Committee was formed by Speaker Pelosi. And that the Democrat Speaker of the House appointed all the members of the committee.

TAPPER: After McCarthy a Republican removed the members, his members.

PENCE: I must tell you, in my 12 years in the Congress of the United States, the idea of a partisan committee on Capitol Hill, a committee appointed by one party, was antithetical to what the Congress is.

TAPPER: It did happen before though, it happened for the Katrina Committee, when Democratic leaders refused to cooperate, you were actually on Capitol Hill at the time. There was a Benghazi Committee that was all formed by Republicans. So it’s not unprecedented.

PENCE: Well, I must tell you, the principle itself was offensive to me. I thought the missed opportunity with January 6th was, was we could have proceeded in a way that was above politics. I mean in the aftermath, and I make no comparison to 9/11 to the thousands of Americans that were lost that day, but after 9/11 we formed a commission that was above politics. It included representatives of both political parties. They examined every aspect of what had happened and it informed legislation that we would enact in the years ahead that I think contributed to the safety and security of our nation.

But the partisan nature of the committee troubled me. But that being said, I never stood in the way of my senior staff cooperating and even testifying before the committee. But as I said today, the January 6th Committee, Congress has no right to my testimony. Because under the Constitution of the United States as vice president we had two co- equal branches of government. The Congress doesn’t report to the White House; the White House doesn’t report to the Congress and I, I try do believe in a defense of the separation of powers and to avoid what would be a terrible precedent, the very notion of a committee on Congress, in Congress, summoning a vice president to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House I think would violate that separation of powers and I think it would erode the dynamic of the office of president and vice president for many years to come.

TAPPER: Certainly, understand that argument. I would just put a final button on this thing about the commission is that there was a move to be a bipartisan commission and in fact Democrats acceded to all of Kevin McCarthy’s requests and then Kevin McCarthy killed it. There was an effort to do that. That’s not your doing, that’s his, but in terms of that effort for a 9/11 commission.

Watch above via CNN.

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