Former Vice President Mike Pence often is held up as a paragon of moral rectitude, of unflinching loyalty to doing the right thing.
Well, we are going to learn — probably quite soon — whether the real man is true to his reputation.
A special counsel appointed to examine Donald Trump’s involvement in the 1/6 insurrection has subpoenaed Pence to testify before a grand jury. Pence was “in the room” when Trump exploded at him for his refusal to do Trump’s bidding on 1/6, which was to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Pence said he couldn’t do it, that the law wouldn’t allow it; nor would the U.S. Constitution. He was only able to preside over a joint congressional session that had gathered that day to certify the Electoral College result that elected Joe Biden president of the United States. That wasn’t good enough for Trump and he berated the vice president to break the law and violate his constitutional oath.
Special counsel Jack Smith wants Pence to tell him under oath what we all know happened that fateful and hideous day.
Will the ex-VP declare some bogus form of executive privilege — which he is not entitled to do — or will he answer the summons to talk to the investigators and tell them the whole truth?
From my seat in the North Texas peanut gallery, it looks for all the world as if Jack Smith is getting ready to do something really significant in this probe. He just needs one of the key players in this drama to come clean on what he knew and when he knew it.