Mike Pence says he will not testify before Jan. 6 committee against Trump’s call with Ukraine but Democrats won’t let him go
White House has moved aside a plan to send Pence to stand beside Trump during the president’s State of the Union address on Jan. 29
Vice President Mike Pence walked out of his Trump impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday afternoon without testifying, saying he will not attend any part of the hearing on Thursday.
Pence said he will be in Austin, Texas on Thursday to visit with Vice President Mike Pence to discuss the border crisis.
The White House did not allow Pence to appear Monday night at his deposition with the impeachment inquiry, instead sending the former congressman as his deputy, Lt. Gen. Alexander Vindman, who has testified publicly about the call between the president and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Pence said he would not attend the third day of the impeachment inquiry Thursday, saying that he was looking forward to sitting beside the president and telling him his side during the State of the Union address on January 29.
The president had pushed for the VP to appear alongside him on the address, but Democrats rejected the invitation, saying it would make Pence the official public face of Trump’s impeachment.
‘Pence was sent to watch Mike Pence’
Pence and the president were scheduled to walk into the hearing room together before lunch, where Pence was to sit with Vindman and answer questions from members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
But after walking out of the room, Pence walked about a half-mile down the hall and down another hallway before stopping outside a room.
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Politico he saw Pence make a beeline to the room of the three witnesses on the call with the Ukrainian president.
He added that they didn’t even look at each other as they entered the room.
The Florida Republican said that when Pence went in, he immediately sat in the front row.
Pence told reporters in the hallway with reporters that he had not been told by the White House