At a surprise hearing Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, detailed to the January 6th Congressional Committee what happened in the White House before, during and after the capitol attack.
“I overheard the President say something to the effect of, I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons,” Hutchinson said of the rioters. “They’re not here to hurt me, take the f’ing [metal detectors] away. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here.”
The witness also testified that the former President directed officials to remove the metal detectors from an area around the Washington Monument, so more people could go in, even if they were armed, because he was upset the crowd didn’t look big enough. Trump insisted to go to the Capitol several times, but White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned about legal exposure if he followed his supporters there. This ended in Trump allegedly attacking the leader of his security detail.
“I’m the f*ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,” Hutchinson quoted the President as saying. She then stated: “The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engle grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’”
In the end, Hutchinson said that watching the violence and destruction unfold on January 6 was devastating.
“It was unpatriotic, it was unAmerican,” she said. “We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. I still struggle to work through the emotions of that.”
