Former Vice President Mike Pence and his chief of staff Marc Short
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
- The January 6 committee is weighing whether to subpoena Former Vice President Mike Pence to testify.
- Pence’s former chief of staff told CBS News that it could set a risky precedent.
- Marc Short said it could allow for future lawmakers to question any vice president.
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff said it would be a “very risky precedent” to have Pence testify in front of the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
“I think that for the committee there should be a reflection and an appreciation that there are real separation, and basically balance of power, here, but there’s also I think a precedent that’s of great concern,” Marc Short told CBS News on Friday.
Short added: “If you’re going to begin having former vice presidents come under subpoena to testify, there is a former vice president who sits in the oval office today and I’m sure when Republicans take control of Congress in November they’ll be those who want to have investigations into the Biden family’s discussions in Ukraine, what Hunter Biden was doing.”
—CBS News (@CBSNews) July 15, 2022
On Thursday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said the panel was considering asking Pence, as well as former President Donald Trump, to testify in front of the committee.
Trump had previously tried to pressure Pence into overturning the 2020 election by not certifying it. Pence refused to throw out Electoral College votes in swing states, saying he did not have the constitutional right to do so. The former vice president was evacuated from the Senate chambers while certifying the vote on January 6 after a mob of Trump supporters chanted threats to hang Pence.
Short said it was a ‘very risky’ precedent to have vice presidents testify.
“Do you want a precedent where all the sudden you’re allowed to bring former vice presidents to talk about what they were doing when they were vice president, in the Congress to talk about their conversations with the president of the United States?” Short asked.
