WASHINGTON (ASYSIDED PRESS)
Donald Trump rejected his own security warnings about armed protesters in a crowd rally on Jan. 6 and made desperate attempts to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, new dramatic testimony said Tuesday before the House Committee on Investigation of the 2021 Uprising.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a little-known former White House aide, described that day as a vicious, audacious president who that day tried to allow gunmen to evade security checks at a rally to protest his defeat in the 2020 election, and who later grabbed the president’s hand. an SUV when the Secret Service refused to release him to the Capitol.
And when events in the Capitol escalated into violence, when the crowd chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” she testified that Trump refused to intervene.
“Trump doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Hutchinson recalled hearing from her boss, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Hutchinson’s explosive explosive account of what was happening inside and outside the White House offered a vivid description of the president, who was so reluctant to admit his defeat in the 2020 election to Joe Biden, who acted furiously and refused to end the siege of the Capitol. He painted a disgusting portrait of chaos in the White House as people around the defeated president split into one faction that supports his false allegations of voter fraud, and another that unsuccessfully tries to end the violent attack.
Her testimony at an unexpected hearing announced just 24 hours earlier was the only topic of the committee’s sixth hearing this month. The account was particularly strong because of her proximity to power: Hutchinson described what she witnessed firsthand and what others in the White House said.
Hutchinson said she was told that on Jan. 6, Trump was fighting a security official for control of the presidential SUV and demanded to occupy the Capitol when the uprising began, despite being warned earlier that day that some of his fans are armed.
The former aide said she was immediately told about the quarrel in the SUV by a White House security officer, and that Bobby Engel, the chief of the details, was in the room and did not dispute the bill. She was told that Engel grabbed Trump by the arm to prevent him from gaining control of the armored vehicle, and Trump then used his free hand to pounce on Engel.
This bill was quickly challenged. Engel, the agent who drove the presidential SUV, and Trump’s security official Tony Ornato are ready to testify under oath that no agent was attacked and Trump never rushed behind the wheel, said a man familiar with the matter. The man did not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
As events unfolded on Jan. 6, Hutchinson, then Meadows’ special aide, described the chaos in the White House offices and corridors. Trump officials – some of whom had been warned of the violence in advance – became increasingly worried when Capitol rebels seized police and cut off certification of Biden’s victory.
According to her, Trump was less worried, even when he heard the crowd shouting “Hang Mike Pence!” Hutchinson recalled that Meadows told aides that Trump “believes Mike deserves it.” During the attack, the president tweeted that Pence lacked the courage to object to Biden’s victory when he chaired a joint session of Congress.
The young ex-assistant was justified in most of her answers. But she said she was “disgusted” by Trump’s tweet about Pence during the blockade.
“It was unpatriotic, not American, and you watched the Capitol building being ruined because of a lie,” Hutchinson said, adding, “I’m still having a hard time reliving the emotions.”
Trump has denied much of what Hutchinson said on his platform on social media Truth Social. He called it “complete fake” and “bad news.”
Members of the panel praised Hutchinson’s courage to testify and said other witnesses were intimidated and did not cooperate.
“I want all Americans to know that what Ms. Hutchinson did today is not easy,” said Wyoming Liz Cheney, a Republican who conducted the interrogation.
Some of Hutchinson’s former colleagues also defended her account. Mick Malwayney, who preceded Meadows as Trump’s chief of staff, tweeted that Hutchinson knew, and “I don’t think she’s lying.” Sarah Matthews, a former Trump aide to the press who also worked with the committee, called the testimony “disgusting.”
When she described the scene in the White House after the election, Hutchinson portrayed a president who falters with anger and is prone to outbursts of violence. Some aides tried to contain his impulses. Some did not.
At one point on Jan. 6, Hutchinson said, White House attorney Pat Chipalone walked down the hall and confronted Meadows about the rebels breaking into the Capitol. Meadows, staring at his phone, told a White House attorney that Trump didn’t want to do anything, she said.
Earlier, Chipalone was aloud worried that “we will be charged with every crime imaginable” if Trump goes to the Capitol after his speech at the rally, Hutchinson recalled.
Before the crowd went to the Capitol, Hutchinson said she also received an angry call from Republican leader in the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, who had just heard the president say he would come. “Don’t come here,” McCarthy told her before hanging up.
Hutchinson said Trump was informed earlier in the day that some of the protesters near the White House had guns. But he responded that the protesters were “not in order to hurt me,” Hutchinson said.
She quoted Trump, who ordered his staff, in obscene terms, to pick up magnetometers to detect the metal, which he thought would slow down supporters who were going to his speech on the Ellipse, at the back of the White House. In a video from a previous committee interview, she recalled how the president said, “I don’t care that they have weapons.”
As a White House insider, Hutchinson told the stories of an enraged president who failed to concede defeat. In early December, she said, she heard noise in the White House around the time an Associated Press article was published in which Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had found no evidence of voter fraud that could alter the election results.
She said she entered the room and found ketchup dripping down the wall and broken porcelain. It turned out that the president with disgust threw lunch at the wall for the article. Trump denied this in his posts on social media.
A few days before the attack, Hutchinson said she was “afraid and nervous about what might happen” on January 6 after talks with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Meadows and others.
Meadows told Hutchinson that “owls can be real, very bad,” she said. Giuliani told her it would be a “great day” and “we are going to the Capitol”.
Eventually, both men will seek pardon over what happened that day, Hutchinson said. A man familiar with the case denied that Meadows had ever asked for pardon. The man spoke on condition of anonymity.
Hutchinson has already provided tremendous information to Congressional investigators, taking four interviews with the board behind closed doors. She described in detail the meetings on the eve of the uprising, at which the White House discussed and discussed the problems of the election, including with several Republican MPs.
