Thompson & Cheney Statement on Former Vice President Pence’s Interview

Washington—Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) today issued the following statement:

“The Select Committee has proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engagement with Vice President Pence, so it is disappointing that he is misrepresenting the nature of our investigation while giving interviews to promote his new book. 

“Our investigation has publicly presented the testimony of more than 50 Republican witnesses, including senior members of the Trump White House, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Justice Department. This testimony, subject to criminal penalties for lying to Congress, was not ‘partisan.’ It was truthful.

“Every member of the Select Committee supported the creation of an independent bipartisan commission. After initially supporting such a commission, Leader McCarthy withdrew his support and the bipartisan plan to create the commission was defeated by Republicans in the Senate. The Select Committee was formed only after the proposal for an outside commission was defeated.

“Leader McCarthy had the opportunity to nominate five members of the Select Committee. Speaker Pelosi initially accepted three of those nominees and invited Leader McCarthy to propose two others. Rather than doing so, McCarthy chose to withdraw all his nominees and refused to participate at all—so that he could make the false claim that the Committee was entirely one-sided.  This was a cynical choice by Mr. McCarthy. In fact, both the Vice Chair and Representative Kinzinger are Republicans.

“The Select Committee has consistently praised the former Vice President’s refusal to bow to former President Trump’s pressure to illegally refuse to count electoral votes on January 6th. But his recent statements about the Select Committee are not accurate.”

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