Kevin Lamarque | Reuters In a scathing testimony before the House committee investigating the Capitol attacks, a former aide to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, described Trump as an outraged general in the weeks following the uprising. An enraged Trump fell on his Secret Service agent, tossed dishes and refused to help his vice president as angry mobsters shouted “hang Mike Pence,” former Meadows’s mentor Cassidy Hutchinson told lawmakers filing on Tuesday, recalling what. heard and saw the days and weeks surrounding the events of January 6, 2021. Trump took to his social media page on Truth Social to distance himself from his former aide and claimed he hardly knew her. Here are some basic facts about a stomp pad.
Trump attacks a secret service agent
Hutchinson said she was told the former president had attacked a Secret Service agent after his security guard refused to take Trump to the Capitol as his supporters went to riot halls in Congress. Hutson recalled a conversation she had with then-White House official Tony Ornato. She told the House panel that she explained that after Trump told his supporters he would join them on their way to the Capitol, he insisted the Secret Service bring him there. When Trump got into the presidential limousine, Ornato said Trump had the impression from Meadows that they would probably still go to the Capitol, Hutchinson testified. When Secret Service Special Agent Bobby Engel said they were not going to leave because they were not considered safe, Trump “had a very strong, very angry response to that,” Hutchinson told Ornato. “Tony described him as angry,” Hutchinson said. Trump said something like, “I’m the current president, take me to the Capitol now.” Engel refused again, so Trump “stretched out the front of the vehicle to grab the steering wheel.” Engel grabbed his hand and said, “Sir, you have to get your hand off the steering wheel. “We are returning to the West Wing,” Hutchinson testified. Trump “used his free hand to fly to Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson was told. He added that when Ornato told her this story, he made sense with his hands towards his keys.
Trump was okay with guns at the rally
Hutchinson also said Trump told his aides he did not care if his supporters brought guns to the Jan. 6 rally during the attack. “I do not care if they have guns. They are not here to harm me, take the rubbish away. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here,” Trump told Hutson. pre-recorded testimony. He said Trump was okay with removing the metal detection magnetometers because the president was convinced he was not in personal danger.
Trump told Pence staff he deserved to be hanged
Hutchinson told the committee that Trump had shown his team that he believed then-Vice President Mike Pence deserved to be hanged. Trump supporters repeatedly shouted “Hang Mike Pence” after the former vice president helped validate the election results. “I remember Pat Schipolone saying, ‘They’re literally drawing the vice president to be hanged,’” Hutchinson told the committee in an interview, describing how the former White House adviser approached Meadows about the uprising. “You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Hutchinson said, describing Meadows’s response to Chipolone.
Trump throws the meal on the wall
A few weeks before the attacks, in December 2020, Trump threw his lunch and dishes against a wall when he learned that former Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread electoral fraud, according to testimony on Tuesday. In the aftermath of his defeat by President Joe Biden, Trump began to claim without evidence that his 2020 election had been “stolen” due to widespread voter fraud. The Attorney General himself later found that there was no evidence to support this allegation. “I remember hearing noise from the hallway,” Hutchinson testified. “I left the office and went down to the dining room and noticed that the door was open and the valet was in the dining room and was changing the tablecloth from the dining room table,” he testified.
