Adam Kinzinger Says the January 6th Committee is Still ‘Grappling’ with Whether or Not to Force Trump to Testify

Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), reveals the January 6th committee is still on the fence on whether or not they will call upon former President Donald Trump to testify.

Kinzinger who serves on the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack was speaking with former senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod for the Thursday edition of his podcast, The Axe Files.

Axelrod asked about former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and members of the House who have not yet testified before the committee. “What are you guys gonna do about any of that? Is that, is that going to — are you going to take any more action to try and compel testimony?” Axelrod said.

“Well, it really comes down — So let’s take the members of the House first. There’s not a ton you can do, in theory, we can refer contempt to the Justice Department. I’ll tell you, the Justice Department will not indict members of the House for refusing a House subpoena, because they’ll say as pretty much courts have always held, the house has to deal with its own business,” Kinzinger said.

“That’s your problem, yeah,” Axelrod agreed.

“They’ll be referred to ethics. That’ll be an ethics fight — who knows what that turns into. I don’t expect those members of Congress to come in and I never did,” Kinzinger clarified.

But he turned his focus to Trump and Pence, saying that the committee is still in active debate over calling them to testify.

“In terms of the vice president, the president, it’s something we’re still grappling with in terms of — we know the president won’t come in, he may say he will, but then we’re gonna end up in these back and forth with lawyers and maybe the same with the vice president, but we’ll have more — we’ll have a decision on that fairly soon,” Kinzinger said.

“We’re going through these discussions, particularly with, Mike Pence, but I’ll tell you, regardless of whether he comes in or not, we pretty much, because of his team around him that has actually come forward. We know a lot,” he revealed.

“Do you think they would’ve come forward if he hadn’t encouraged them to?” Axelrod asked pointedly.

“I think they would’ve probably been less willing to, but a lot of these folks are honorable. I mean, I disagree with that they, you know, propped up Trump for long enough,” Kinzinger said.

He clarified that although it was helpful that Pence “did his job that day,” Kinzinger reveals that he still doesn’t have a lot of respect for the former vice president.

“I think the vice president did his job on that day. I wouldn’t go so far as to call him heroic. And I think I’ve been very disappointed in how he’s been completely unwilling. He could have been like the face of kind of the opposition in the Republican party against Trump. And now he’s nobody,” Kinzinger said. “He’s gonna be somebody that will not get the nomination and has not taken really a strong standing against Donald Trump. I don’t have a lot of respect for Mike Pence, even after January 6th.”

Listen above via The Axe Files.

 
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