Trump dismissed Jan. 6 threats, wanted to join crowd, former aide testifies
Donald Trump rebuffed his own security바카라 게임 웹사이트s warnings about armed protesters in the Jan. 6 rally crowd and made desperate attempts to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, according to dramatic new testimony Tuesday before the House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a little-known former White House aide, described an angry, defiant president that day who was trying to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat and who later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol.
And when the events at the Capitol spiraled toward violence, with the crowd chanting to 바카라 게임 웹사이트Hang Mike Pence,바카라 게임 웹사이트 she testified that Trump declined to intervene.
Trump 바카라 게임 웹사이트doesn바카라 게임 웹사이트t think they바카라 게임 웹사이트re doing anything wrong,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hutchinson recalled hearing from her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Hutchinson바카라 게임 웹사이트s explosive, moment-by-moment account of what was happening inside and outside the White House offered a vivid description of a president so unwilling to concede his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden that he acted out in rage and refused to stop the siege at the Capitol. It painted a damning portrait of the chaos at the White House as those around the defeated president splintered into one faction supporting his false claims of voter fraud and another trying unsuccessfully to put an end to the violent attack.
Her testimony, at a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, was the sole focus at the hearing, the sixth by the committee this month. The account was particularly powerful because of her proximity to power, with Hutchinson describing what she witnessed first-hand and was told by others in the White House.
Hutchinson said that she was told Trump fought a security official for control of the presidential SUV on Jan. 6 as the insurrection began, despite being warned earlier that day that some of his supporters were armed.
The former aide said she was told of the altercation in the SUV immediately afterward by a White House security official, and that Bobby Engel, the head of the detail, was in the room and didn바카라 게임 웹사이트t dispute the account. Engel had grabbed Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s arm to prevent him from gaining control of the armored vehicle, she was told, and Trump then used his free hand to lunge at Engel.
That account was quickly disputed. Engel, the agent who was driving the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter said. The person would not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
As the events of Jan. 6 unfurled, Hutchinson, then a special assistant to Meadows, described chaos in White House offices and hallways. Trump's staff 바카라 게임 웹사이트 several of whom had been warned of violence beforehand 바카라 게임 웹사이트 became increasingly alarmed as rioters at the Capitol overran police and interrupted the certification of Biden바카라 게임 웹사이트s victory.
Trump was less concerned, she said, even as he heard there were cries in the crowd to 바카라 게임 웹사이트Hang Mike Pence!바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hutchinson recalled that Meadows told aides that Trump 바카라 게임 웹사이트thinks Mike deserves it." The president tweeted during the attack that Pence didn바카라 게임 웹사이트t have the courage to object to Biden바카라 게임 웹사이트s win as he presided over the joint session of Congress.
The young ex-aide was matter-of-fact in most of her answers. But she did say that she was 바카라 게임 웹사이트disgusted바카라 게임 웹사이트 at Trump's tweet about Pence during the siege.
바카라 게임 웹사이트It was unpatriotic, it was un-American, and you were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie," Hutchinson said, adding that, 바카라 게임 웹사이트I still struggle to work through the emotions of that.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Trump denied much of what Hutchinson said on his social media platform, Truth Social. He called her a 바카라 게임 웹사이트total phony바카라 게임 웹사이트 and 바카라 게임 웹사이트bad news.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Members of the panel praised Hutchinson바카라 게임 웹사이트s bravery for testifying and said that other witnesses had been intimidated and did not cooperate.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I want all Americans to know that what Ms. Hutchinson has done today is not easy,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who led questioning.
Some of Hutchinson바카라 게임 웹사이트s former colleagues, too, defended her account. Mick Mulvaney, who preceded Meadows as Trump바카라 게임 웹사이트s chief of staff, tweeted that he knows Hutchinson and 바카라 게임 웹사이트I don바카라 게임 웹사이트t think she is lying.바카라 게임 웹사이트 Sarah Matthews, a former Trump press aide who has also cooperated with the committee, called the testimony 바카라 게임 웹사이트damning.바카라 게임 웹사이트
As she described the scene in the White House after the election, Hutchinson depicted a president flailing in anger and prone to violent outbursts. Some aides sought to rein in his impulses. Some did not.
At one point on Jan. 6, Hutchinson said, White House counsel Pat Cipollone barreled down the hallway and confronted Meadows about rioters breaching the Capitol. Meadows, staring at his phone, told the White House lawyer that Trump didn바카라 게임 웹사이트t want to do anything, she said.
Earlier, Cipollone had worried out loud that 바카라 게임 웹사이트we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable바카라 게임 웹사이트 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 call from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who had just heard the president say he was coming. 바카라 게임 웹사이트Don바카라 게임 웹사이트t come up here,바카라 게임 웹사이트 McCarthy told her, before hanging up.
Hutchinson told the panel that Trump had been informed early in the day that some of the protesters outside the White House had weapons. But he responded that the protesters were 바카라 게임 웹사이트not here to hurt me,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hutchinson said.
She quoted Trump as directing his staff, in profane terms, to take away the metal-detecting magnetometers that he thought would slow down supporters who were gathering for his speech on the Ellipse, in back of the White House. In a clip of an earlier interview with the committee, she recalled the president saying words to the effect of: 바카라 게임 웹사이트I don바카라 게임 웹사이트t [expletive] care that they have weapons.바카라 게임 웹사이트
As a White House insider, Hutchinson told stories of a raging president who was unable to acknowledge his defeat. At the beginning of December, she said, she heard noise inside the White House around the time an Associated Press article was published in which Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had not found evidence of voter fraud that could have changed the election's outcome.
She said she entered a room to find ketchup dripping down a wall and broken porcelain. The president, it turned out, had thrown his lunch at the wall in disgust over the article. Trump denied it in his social media posts.
In the days before the attack, Hutchinson said she was 바카라 게임 웹사이트scared, and nervous for what could happen바카라 게임 웹사이트 on Jan. 6 after having conversations with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Meadows and others.
Meadows told Hutchinson that 바카라 게임 웹사이트things might get real, real bad,바카라 게임 웹사이트 she said. Giuliani told her it was going to be 바카라 게임 웹사이트a great day바카라 게임 웹사이트 and 바카라 게임 웹사이트we바카라 게임 웹사이트re going to the Capitol.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Eventually, both men would seek pardons related to what happened that day, Hutchinson said. A person familiar with the matter denied that Meadows had ever sought a pardon. The person spoke on condition of anonymity.
Hutchinson had already provided a trove of information to congressional investigators, sitting for four interviews with the panel behind closed doors. She detailed meetings in the runup to the insurrection where challenges to the election were debated and discussed at the White House, including with several Republican lawmakers.
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Nomaan Merchant, Kevin Freking, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.