EDITOR’S PICK
EKO HOT BLOG reports that up until now, the congressional committee investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol was missing a key piece of the puzzle – the testimony of someone who could offer a first-hand account of the situation in the White House in the hours before and during the attack.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, filled in the blanks. And she has painted a devastating picture, including an allegation, which Trump denies, that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was travelling in and wrestled with a Secret Service officer in an attempt to divert his motorcade to the Capitol, where his supporters were gathering.
Very early in the proceedings, the committee went to lengths to establish how the White House, and the president himself, knew that there was a very real threat of violence on 6 January – and did nothing to stop it.
Ms Hutchinson testified that Mr Meadows told her he thought, days before the attack, that things “might get real, real bad”.
She spoke of how White House officials were warned of the potential for violence. And, in perhaps the most damning testimony so far, she said Donald Trump personally knew that members of the crowd at his morning rally near the White House were armed because they were being turned away by Secret Service officers – and directed them to the Capitol anyway.
Some of Ms Hutchinson’s most damning testimony came second hand, however. She recounted how a White House official told her that the president had insisted on traveling to the Capitol after his White House rally – something he said he would do during his speech. When he learned the motorcade was going back to the White House, he attempted to grab the steering wheel and wrestled with a Secret Service officer.
“I’m the [expletive] president,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson. “Take me up to the Capitol now.”
FURTHER READING
Since Ms Hutchinson’s testimony, a source close to the Secret Service has told CBS News that both the agent and driver travelling in the car with Trump were willing to testify under oath that the former president did not physically attack either of them and never attempted to grab the steering wheel.
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