In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 panel, said that the committee is in "discussions" with Vice President Mike Pence's counsel about testifying.
Her comments come just days after Pence said that he "would consider" testifying before the committee if invited.
“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” Pence said Wednesday at the New England Council and Saint Anselm College’s “Politics & Eggs” event. “I would have to reflect on the unique role that I was serving as vice president."
"It would be unprecedented in history for the vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill. But, as I said, I don’t want to prejudge ever any formal invitation rendered to us," he continued. "If there were ever any formal invitation rendered to us, we'd give it due consideration, but my first obligation is to continue to uphold my oath, continue to uphold the framework of government enshrined in the Constitution."
Cheney, speaking to ABC's Jonathan Karl in the Jan. 6 Committee's hearing room, said that she had not seen Pence's comments, but said they appear to be similar to ones made by his counsel.
"Look, he played a critical role on Jan. 6," she said. "If he had succumbed to the pressure that Donald Trump was putting on him, we would have had a much worse Constitutional crisis. And I think that he has clearly, as he's expressed, concerns about executive privilege," which she said she respects as a "hugely important constitutional issue in terms of separation of powers."
"I believe in executive privilege. I think it matters. But I also think that when the country has been through something, as grave as this was, everyone who has information has an obligation to step forward. So I would hope that that he will do that."
When asked if we will see Pence in the hearing room testifying, she replied: "I would hope that he he will understand how important it is for the American people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day."
She demurred when asked about if former President Donald Trump will be asked to testify: "I don't want to make any announcements about that."
"But it's possible you would ask him, before wrapping up, to testify?" Karl asked.
"Yes," she replied. "Again, I don't want to get in front of committee deliberations about that. I do think it's very important, as I said in the first hearing or the second hearing, you know, his interactions with our committee will be under oath."
The panel is set to reconvene hearings again in September following a summer of high-profile tribunals.
Cheney, who just this week lost her primary race to a Trump-backed challenger, did not mince words about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, blasting him as "completely unfaithful to the Constitution" and saying he should not serve as Speaker of the House should Republicans retake the chamber in November.
"My views about Kevin McCarthy are very clear," she said. "The Speaker of the House is the second in line for the presidency. It requires somebody who understands and recognizes their duty, their oath, their obligation, and he's been completely unfaithful to the Constitution and demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the significance and importance of the role of speaker."
"I don't believe he should be Speaker of the House," she continued.
When asked if the country would be worse off if he assumed the role, she repeated: "I don't believe he should be Speaker of the House."