Source: Politics<\/p>\n
MANCHESTER, N.H. \u2014 Former Vice President Mike Pence hasn\u2019t ruled out testifying before the Jan. 6 select committee investigating efforts by his former boss and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,\u201d Pence told a packed room at the New England Council and Saint Anselm College\u2019s \u201cPolitics & Eggs\u201d event on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to reflect on the unique role that I was serving as vice president,\u201d Pence continued. \u201cIt would be unprecedented in history for the vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill. But, as I said, I don’t want to prejudge ever any formal invitation rendered to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, the former vice president, who is typically reticent to talk about his experience on Jan. 6, 2021 \u2014 when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the counting of Electoral Votes and chanted \u201chang Mike Pence\u201d \u2014 seemed uncharacteristically open to talking about it down the line, perhaps in the memoir he referenced that is scheduled to be released just after November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people have a right to know what happened,\u201d Pence said. \u201cAnd in the months and years ahead, I\u2019ll be telling my story even more frequently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jan. 6 panel has weighed whether to formally seek Pence\u2019s testimony for months, with members at times suggesting they would like to bring the former vice president in to hear his version of events.<\/p>\n
There is one piece of evidence<\/a> that only Pence may be equipped to provide: His responses to Trump during their final phone call on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump apparently berated Pence for refusing to support his plan to block the certification of Joe Biden\u2019s victory at the joint session of Congress that day.<\/p>\n But the committee has at other points indicated it may not need to hear directly from Pence, whose closest advisers have testified at length and provided the panel with some of its most significant revelations. The panel declined comment Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n Two of Pence\u2019s top aides, Marc Short and Greg Jacob, recently testified before a Washington, D.C., grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his administration to disrupt the transfer of power. Their testimony to the select committee helped form the basis of a federal judge\u2019s assessment<\/a> that Trump had likely committed multiple crimes connected to Jan. 6.<\/p>\n Trump loomed large over Pence\u2019s return to New Hampshire and to Politics & Eggs, an all-but-required stop for those with presidential ambitions visiting the first-in-the-nation primary state.<\/p>\n Pence minimized mentions of Trump in his speech, listing off the accomplishments of the \u201cTrump-Pence administration\u201d before urging folks to refocus on the midterms \u201cbecause elections are about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to do more than criticize and complain,\u201d Pence said. \u201cWe need to unite our movement around the bold, optimistic agenda that will give real solutions to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n Pence\u2019s only formal acknowledgement of the now-chilly relationship between him and his former boss \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s fairly well known that President Trump and I have had our differences\u201d \u2014 was laughed away by a crowd packed with big-name New Hampshire Republicans including Fred Doucette, who chaired Trump\u2019s New Hampshire campaigns in both 2016 and 2020.<\/p>\n In his remarks on Wednesday, Pence seemed eager to carve an electoral lane for himself distinct from Trump without disparaging the former president, who remains enormously popular and influential within the Republican Party.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no question from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump we have had our share of big personalities in this party, and I expect we will again,\u201d Pence said. \u201cBut I must tell you, when I spoke to crowds large and small across this country, it was the ideas that created the roar, it was the commitment to those American values that brought people out.\u201d<\/p>\n The former vice president is one of several high-profile Republicans \u2013 Trump included \u2013 to hint at a presidential campaign in 2024. Pence did little on Wednesday to dispel talk that he might mount a 2024 White House bid.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve never spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, but I may someday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pence\u2019s message at times fell flat among the crowd of New Hampshire and Massachusetts bigwigs who gathered to see the former vice president. He received only a smattering of applause when he spoke of being a \u201csmall part of an administration\u201d that appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court that sent \u201cRoe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs.\u201d Abortion rights are popular among voters<\/a> in both states<\/a>.<\/p>\n But he remains a draw for New Hampshire Republicans eager to help their party take control of the House and Senate this fall and hold onto power at the state house. Pence had several more stops in New Hampshire on Wednesday, including events with conservative candidates for the state legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s one of the top handful of nationally prominent Republicans, political Republicans, who can draw really good crowds of people,\u201d Chris Ager, the Republican National Committeeman for New Hampshire, said in an interview ahead of Pence\u2019s speech. \u201cPeople want to hear what he has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n