Washington: Donald Trump knew that the mob that was heading to the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — a mob that he had rallied to protest against the certification of the election — was armed. He wanted to join the mob, and had a physical scuffle with the head of his security detail when the Secret Service stopped him from going to the Capitol.
When the mob’s chant of “Hang Mike Pence” — the Vice President was to certify the electoral outcome, despite Trump’s unconstitutional instruction to him not to do so — was discussed in the White House, Trump said Pence deserved it. Even as the mob began the attack on the Capitol, despite pleas by his aides and family members, Trump refused to stop them for hours. And when he did so, he refused to condemn the unprecedented attack on the Capitol.
Instead, Trump wanted to pardon the rioters. And after being complicit in Trump’s unsubstantiated claims which led to the January 6 insurrection, his closest aides then sought a presidential pardon before Trump’s term ended.
These were among the explosive details disclosed in the sixth — previously unscheduled — hearing of the Select Committee to investigate the January 6 attack.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant to the President in the office of the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had a ringside view of the events inside the Trump world on the day and told the Committee what she saw and heard.
The Committee has already, in its hearings, shown how Trump’s claims of electoral fraud were untrue, and despite his aides and legal advisors telling him so, the then-American president continued to ramp up pressure on his party’s Congressional leadership, on states and on his Vice President to participate in his attempt to overturn the election — the first time that the tradition of peaceful transfer of power was undermined in the US.
But Hutchinson’s testimony offered a rare peek into the turmoil inside the President’s inner circle, caused by Trump’s actions, on that day.
Rally: “I don’t care if they have weapons”
In what will be a blow to the Trump narrative on how January 6 was spontaneous, Hutchinson first revealed how on January 2 itself, Meadows — her boss — said that “things might get real real bad” on that day. She also referred to warnings from both the intelligence community and other staffers on the potential for violence on January 6.
Hutchinson said the White House deputy chief of staff, Tony Ornato, on the morning of January 6, around 10 am, went to Meadows to tell him that those who had come for the rally — Trump addressed the crowd before they marched to the Capitol — had a range of weapons.
Meadows seemed indifferent and asked him if he had told the President. Ornato said Trump had been told and knew they were armed.
Trump was angry that morning — but not because the crowd was armed, but because he wanted the space where he was to address the rally packed to capacity, and blamed Secret Service for not letting in people with arms.
Hutchinson, who was backstage with the President at the rally, then heard him say, “I don’t xxxx care they have weapons. They are not here to hurt me…Let the people in.” He wanted the Secret Service to remove the magnetometers to let people in with weapons.
Trump then told the crowd that he would walk with them down to the Capitol. He gave a speech that the White House legal team had warned against, both for legal concerns and the optics of what it would portray about the President’s intent.
Meanwhile, as the crowd proceeded, Hutchinson said that it was clear to her, and to the Secret Service, that Capitol Police was getting overrun and was short of people to defend the building. She conveyed this to Meadows, who, once again, did not show any concern.
March: “I am the President, Take me to the Capitol”
Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump aide and a firm backer of his election conspiracy theories, had told Hutchinson that the President would go to the Capitol on January 2. The President himself told the crowd at his rally on January 6 that he would walk with them.
It did not happen. But not because Trump didn’t intend to.
When the plan was mooted, the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, warned the President’s staff — including Hutchinson — that for Trump to go to the Capitol was a bad idea, and if the President indeed went, they would be charged with “every crime imaginable”, including potential obstruction of justice, defrauding the electoral count and inciting a riot.
By the time Trump finished addressing the rally, a part of the mob had already attacked the inaugural stage on the Capitol. Hearing the President say he would accompany the rally attendees to the Capitol, the then-House minority leader Kevin McCarthy called Hutchinson to express his frustration. She told him that it would not happen.
But the President was not one to be deterred. When he finished his speech around 1.10 pm and got into his car — called The Beast in Secret Service lingo —Trump thought he was heading to the Capitol. Bobby Engel, the head of the President’s security detail, told him that they were not going; it was not secure to do so; they did not have enough assets to do it; and it was time to head back to the West Wing.
Trump erupted in anger. He said, “I am the xxxx President. Take me to the Capitol now.”
When Engel refused, Trump reached to the front of the vehicle to grab the steering vehicle. When Engel told him to take his hands off the wheel, and reiterated they would return to the West Wing, Trump used his free hand to lunge towards the head of his security detail.
The deputy chief of staff, Ornato, recounted this story to Hutchinson, in Engel’s presence, at the White House subsequently.
The President, after returning, still wanted to march to the rally and blamed Meadows, his chief of staff, for not being able to organise the movement and Engel for stopping him.
Trump’s physical altercation was not the first time his rage was visible to staffers. Earlier in December, when the Attorney General gave an interview saying they had no evidence of fraud, the President had thrown his lunch against the wall. Hutchinson said that Trump had often thrown his plate or flipped the tablecloth to throw the contents on the table off to the ground as it broke or got scattered.
Message: Hang Mike Pence — “He deserves it”.
By the afternoon of January 6, Hutchinson could see on television that rioters were getting really close to attacking the Capitol building. She went to her boss — chief of staff Meadows — to check if he was seeing what was happening and asked if he had spoken to the President. Meadows told her that Trump wanted to be left alone.
The White House counsel, Cipollone, then rushed into Meadows’s office and told him that they needed to go and see the President immediately. Meadows told him that Trump did not want to do anything. The counsel told Meadows how something needed to be done, people were going to die and blood was going to be on his xxxx hands. Both Meadows and then Cipollone then went to see Trump.
Hutchinson, a few minutes later, then went into the dining room where Trump was present to hand over Meadows his phone. She heard them talk about the “Hang Mike Pence” chants.
When Meadows and Cipollone returned to the chief of staff’s office, the counsel once again told the chief of staff that something needed to be done — “they are literally calling for the Vice President to be xxxx hung”. Meadows told Cipollone that they had heard the president — Trump had said that Pence deserved it, and didn’t think that they were doing anything wrong. The President even tweeted that afternoon, at 2.24 pm, that Pence had lacked the courage to do what was needed — a tweet that Hutchinson said frustrated and disgusted her.
Attack: “Go home, we love you”
As the mob attacked the Capitol, Hutchinson said there were three broad camps of thought within the White House on what needed to be done.
Both the White House Counsel’s office and the President’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, were pleading with Trump to take swift action, with the legal team urging the President to issue a statement to condemn the rioters and Ivanka wanting her father to send rioters home. Then there was a “more neutral group”, which recognised that something needed to be done but toed the line knowing that Trump did not want to act. And then there was a third group which wanted to “deflect and blame”.
Outside the White House, as images of the mob attack spread, Republican leaders, Trump supporters, including prominent right wing media figures, and Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, began texting Meadows urging him to get the President to take action. Cabinet members had begun resigning, while others had begun discussing plans to invoke the 25th amendment, the constitutional provision that hands over power to the Vice President if the President is unfit or unable to serve.
It was only at 4.17 pm that Trump finally, reluctantly, told rioters to go home — but he added that he loved them and he refused to condemn them or the violence.
Trump’s lack of regret was visible the next day too. On January 7th, the White House legal team once again prepared a more detailed statement for Trump to put out. But the President disagreed with the substance of the draft. He did not want to condemn the rioters, and he did not want lines speaking about prosecuting the rioters or calling them violent. Instead, Trump wanted to put in a reference to pardoning rioters, an idea which the White House legal team strongly advised the President against doing.
Even though Trump was reluctant to give a second statement, his advisors managed to persuade him to do so — arguing that the prospect of the 25th amendment still loomed, and it was important to cover up the impression that he had not done enough on January 6 to stop the mob and this would be his legacy. Hutchinson also disclosed that both Giuliani and Meadows had later sought presidential pardons for their role related to January 6.
The White House staffer’s testimony — committee members hailed Cassidy Hutchinson’s courage — had finally shown in the greatest detail, so far, what has been an open secret in Washington DC. Sitting in the highest executive office of the land, Donald Trump was complicit, at every step, in the mob attack on the legislature of the United States.