Kinzinger on Pence appearance before Jan. 6 panel: ‘I would love to see that’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday said he would “love” to see former Vice President Mike Pence come before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Kinzinger told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation” the committee will likely decide how to proceed with Pence in the next two weeks.

“I hope he would do so voluntarily. These are decisions I think, that we’re going to end up making from a tactical perspective in the next week or two as we basically pin down what this hearing schedule is going to look like, the content, and as we go into the full narrative of this thing,” he added.

The Illinois Republican said he hopes Pence would want to come before the committee to “tell his story because he did do the right thing on that day.”

If the former vice president does not, however, decide to voluntarily speak with the congressional investigators, Kinzinger said the panel will “look at the options we have available to us if there’s information we don’t already have.”

The select committee revealed this past week that it will hold eight public hearings beginning in June, aiming to release its final report by early fall.

Whether or not Pence will testify before the committee has been a topic of intense interest on Capitol Hill, as he was both an eyewitness to the attack and a target of former President Trump and his supporters.

Pence has criticized his former boss when it comes to the Jan. 6 attack — earlier this year he said Trump was “wrong” to say that he had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Kinzinger on Sunday also commented on potential subpoenas for GOP members of Congress who were involved in planning the Jan. 6 protests and other efforts to keep Trump in power — activities that raised the concern of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), according to recordings released by The New York Times.

Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, left the door open to subpoenas for his colleagues.

“I won’t say who I think we need to talk to yet. I mean, I think everybody needs to come and talk to us. We’ve requested information from various members in terms of whether we move forward with a subpoena is going to be both a strategic, tactical decision and a question of whether or not, you know, we can do that and get the information in time,” he said.

Pressed by Brennan on if he favors subpoenas, Kinzinger said “if that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena.”

“Those are decisions we make every day. Yeah. I mean, I think ultimately whatever we can do to get that information. I think if that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena,” Kinzinger said.

“But I think the key is, regardless of even what some members of Congress are going to tell us, we know a lot of information around it,” he added. “Right now, we’re kind of not even building a broader narrative. We’re going deeper with richer and more detail to show the American people.”