Donald Trump dismissed security warnings of armed protesters in the January 6 rally and made desperate efforts to unite with his supporters as they marched on the Capitol, according to a new dramatic testimony before the House on Tuesday. uprising of 2021. Cassidy Hutchinson, a little-known former White House aide, described an angry, provocative president that day as he tried to let armed protesters evade security rallies that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat. and who later snatched the wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol. And when the events at the Capitol led to violence, with the crowd shouting “Hang Mike Pence,” he testified that Trump refused to intervene. Trump “does not believe they are doing anything wrong,” Hutchinson recalled hearing from her boss, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson’s explosive, moment-to-moment account of what was happening inside and outside the White House provided a vivid description of a president so reluctant to admit his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden, who acted furiously and refused to end the siege in the Capitol. He painted a condemnatory portrait of chaos in the White House as those around the ousted president split into one faction supporting his false allegations of voter fraud and another trying unsuccessfully to end the violent attack. Her testimony, at a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, was the sole focus of the hearing, the committee’s sixth this month. The account was particularly strong because of its proximity to power, with Hutchinson describing what he saw firsthand and what others in the White House said. Hutchinson said she had been told that Trump had fought a security official for control of the presidential SUV on Jan. 6 and called for an occupation of the Capitol as the uprising began, although he had been warned earlier that day that some of his supporters were armed. The former aide said she was informed of the SUV brawl shortly after a White House security guard and that Bobby Engel, the head of detail, was in the room and did not dispute the bill. Engel had grabbed Trump’s hand to prevent him from gaining control of the armored vehicle, she was told, and Trump used his free hand to throw himself at Engel. This account was quickly challenged. Engel, the agent who drove the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no agent was attacked and that Trump never fell behind the wheel, said a person familiar with the matter. The man would not discuss the matter in public and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. As the events of January 6 unfolded, Hutchinson, then a special assistant to Meadows, described the chaos in the offices and corridors of the White House. Trump’s staff – many of whom had been warned of violence in advance – became increasingly concerned as rioters at the Capitol seized police and cut off certification of Biden’s victory. Trump was less worried, he said, even when he heard the crowd shout “Hang Mike Pence!” Hutchinson recalled that Meadows told his aides that Trump “thinks Mike deserves it.” The president wrote on Twitter during the attack that Pence did not have the courage to oppose Biden’s victory as he chaired the joint congressional session. The young ex-assistant was substantial in most of her answers. However, she said she was “disgusted” by Trump’s tweet about Pence during the siege. “It was anti-patriotic, it was anti-American, and you watched the Capitol building get distorted by a lie,” Hutchinson said, adding, “I’m still struggling to get over his feelings.” Trump denied much of what Hutchinson said on his social networking platform, Truth Social. He called it “completely false” and “bad news”. Committee members praised Hutsinson’s bravery in testifying 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 MP Liz Cheney, a Republican who led the inquiry. Some of Hutchinson’s former colleagues also challenged her account. Mick Mulvaney, who preceded Meadows as Trump’s chief of staff, wrote on Twitter that he knew Hutchinson and “I do not think he is lying.” Sarah Matthews, a former Trump aide who has also worked with the commission, called the testimony “condemnatory.” Describing the scene in the White House after the election, Hutchinson portrayed a president calming down and prone to violent outbursts. Some assistants tried to curb his impulses. Some do not. At some point on Jan. 6, Hutchinson said, White House adviser Pat Chipolone stepped into the aisle and confronted Meadows about rioters breaking into the Capitol. Meadows, looking at his phone, told the White House’s attorney that Trump did not want to do anything, he said. Earlier, Chipolone had expressed strong concern that “we will be charged with every crime imaginable” if Trump went to the Capitol after his speech at the rally, Hutchinson recalled. Before the crowd left for the Capitol, Hutchinson said she also received an angry phone call from House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who had just heard the president say he was coming. “Don’t go up here,” McCarthy told her before she hung up. Hutchinson told the panel that Trump had been informed earlier in the day that some of the protesters outside the White House had weapons. But he replied that the protesters “were not here to hurt me,” Hutchinson said. He said Trump had instructed his staff, in obscene terms, to remove metal detection magnetometers, which he believed would slow down supporters gathering for his speech in Ellipse, behind the White House. In an excerpt from a previous interview with the committee, he recalled the president saying, “I do not care if they have guns.” As a member of the White House, Hutchinson told stories of a raging president who could not acknowledge his defeat. In early December, he said, he heard noise inside the White House when 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 change the outcome of the election. He said he entered a room to find ketchup dripping from under a wall and broken porcelain. The president, as it turned out, had thrown his lunch on the wall in disgust for the article. Trump denied it in his social media posts. In the days before the attack, Hutchinson said she was “scared and nervous about what might happen” on Jan. 6 after talking to Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Mendous and others. Meadows told Hutchinson that “things can get really, really bad,” he said. Giuliani told her it would be “a wonderful day” and “we will go to the Capitol”. Eventually, both men would apologize for what happened that day, Hutchinson said. One person familiar with the matter denied that Meadows had ever asked for forgiveness. The person spoke on condition of anonymity. Hutchinson had already provided a wealth of information to congressional investigators as he participated in four interviews with the committee in camera. He presented detailed meetings ahead of the uprising, where challenges for the White House elections were discussed and discussed, including with several Republican lawmakers. —— Associated Press authors Nomaan Merchant and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
