Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called out former vice president Mike Pence for trying to dodge the DOJ and avoid testifying about the 1/6 attack.
Schiff tweeted:
Pence is now claiming the Speech and Debate Clause — meant for senators and members — allows him to avoid testifying about Jan 6.
Just shows the lengths Pence will go to avoid doing his duty and telling the truth.
What a way to launch a presidential campaign.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 14, 2023
What Rep. Schiff was referring to is a report in The New York Times that Pence is going to try to argue that his role as president of the Senate gives him speech or debate clause protection:
Mr. Pence is expected to argue that the vice president’s role as the president of the Senate means that he is protected from legal scrutiny of his official duties by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, intended to protect the separation of powers.
Such an approach would be novel and a departure from the more traditional argument that a vice president’s interactions with a president would be subject to executive privilege.
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The argument from Pence is shaky at best because the speech or debate clause is intended to protect members of Congress while they carry out their official duties. Lindsey Graham tried to invoke the clause to avoid testifying in the Georgia election meddling investigation, and he lost in court. At least, Graham is a sitting senator.
It would be unusual, to say the least, if the courts found that a vice president has speech or debate clause protection.
Rep. Schiff nailed it. Mike Pence is showing the sort of leader that he isn’t by trying to hide behind the speech or debate clause.
Mike Pence is so afraid of losing votes in the Republican presidential primary that he is willing to obstruct an investigation of the man who sent a mob of supporters to kill him at the Capitol.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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