'Finish the job': Former RNC official calls on Mike Pence to testify before J6 Committee
On Thursday, writing for The Bulwark, former Republican Party staffer Tim Miller called on former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"'We are fortunate for Mike Pence’s courage ... thanks to Mike Pence our democracy withstood Donald Trump’s scheme,' said the Democratic committee chairman Benny [sic] Thompson," wrote Miller. "Another Democrat on the committee, Pete Aguilar, said Pence withstood an onslaught of pressure and was 'true to his oath to protect and defend the constitution' "... Amidst all of this lavish praise of Pence, and the compelling, if fawning, testimony from his own counsel, Greg Jacob, the proceedings felt like they had a phantom limb. Vice President Pence himself."
Pence, who actually did the job of refusing to execute far-right lawyer John Eastman's plan of throwing out electors in states Joe Biden won, needs to clarify his own actions and his views on Trump, Miller argued.
"Shouldn’t the man of the hour have been in the building? Why was he at a roundtable discussion in Ohio, rather than the rotunda where rioters once tried to hunt him down?" wrote Miller. "It was Mike Pence whose life was on the line that day, after-all. It was Mike Pence who they had come to hang. It was Mike Pence who refused to commit a crime for his boss."
"Shouldn’t he testify, under oath, about the events of January 6?" wrote Miller. "Don’t we deserve to hear from Pence what his conversations with Trump were like in the lead-up to that day? Shouldn’t he tell us the ways in which the president abdicated his responsibility to help protect the Capitol and everyone within it as the mob descended? Shouldn’t he be asked whether the president was on the side of America and the Constitution or the insurrectionists who were trying to tear it down?"
The fact Pence can't be bothered to show up, argued Miller, is down to "rank politics" — the need for Pence to stay in the good graces of Republican voters who support Trump in case he moves for a presidential run himself.
"If the former vice president actually believes the words that he has said about the gravity of January 6, then this is not a moment for three-steps down the board political strategery. It’s a time for clarity and radical candor," concluded Miller. "To live up to the praise being bestowed upon him, Mike Pence must testify next week in prime time and finish the job."
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