‘This is a bombshell’: Trump aides left speechless by Hutchinson testimony
Catch up: These are the key lines from Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony at today’s hearing
From CNN staff
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified today before the Jan. 6 committee.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Jan. 6 committee chair, said in his opening remarks that Hutchinson embodies “courage” for testifying and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said in her opening statement that Hutchinson’s testimony “touches on several important and cross-cutting topics, topics that are relevant to each of our future hearings.”
Aides to former President Trump were left speechless amid Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday, acknowledging to CNN that her testimony was “a bombshell” with potentially huge repercussions for Trump. “This is a bombshell. It’s stunning. It’s shocking…I don’t have words. It’s just stunning,” said one Trump adviser.
If you’re just reading in now, here are some of the key things that Hutchinson said during her testimony so far:
- Meadows said that Trump thought Pence deserved chants calling for him to be hanged: Hutchinson said that she heard Meadows say that Trump did not think the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters were doing anything wrong and that Vice President Mike Pence deserved to face chants that calling for his hanging. “I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, ‘Mark, we need to do something more, they’re literally calling for the vice president to be f—ing hung.’ And Mark had responded something to the effect of, ‘You heard it, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.'”
- Trump shattered his lunch plate after learning Barr said election wasn’t fraudulent, aide says she was told: Hutchinson described Trump’s angry reaction after former Attorney General Bill Barr said in an interview with the Associated Press that the Department of Justice had not found evidence of widespread voter fraud after the 2020 election. Hutchinson testified that after learning about the interview Trump went down to the White House dining room and threw a plate against the wall, shattering it. “I left the office and went down to the dining room and I noticed that the door was propped open and the valet was inside the dining room changing the table cloth off of the dining room table. He motioned for me to come in and then pointed towards the front of the room near the fireplace mantle and the TV where I first noticed there was ketchup dripping down the wall and there’s a shattered porcelain plate on the floor.” Hutchinson said that the valet told her that Trump was “extremely angry” at Barr “and had thrown his lunch against the wall, which was causing them to have to clean up.”
- Hutchinson details secondhand account of Trump lunging at Secret Service agents on Jan. 6 : Hutchinson testified that she was told that Trump became “irate” when informed by security that he would not be going to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because the situation was not secure. Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff, told Hutchinson that Robert Engel, who was the Secret Service agent in charge on Jan. 6, 2021, repeatedly told Trump on their way back to the White House after Trump’s Ellipse speech that it wasn’t safe to go to the Capitol. And she testified that she heard a secondhand account of how Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol that he lunged to the front of his presidential SUV and tried to turn the wheel. According to Hutchinson, Ornato recounted Trump screaming, “I’m the F’ing President. Take me up to the Capitol now.” Trump then “reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel,” Hutchinson remembered learning. She added that, according to Ornato, Trump used his other hand to “lunge” at Engel.
- Mark Meadows sought a presidential pardon: Hutchinson told the committee that her former boss, Mark Meadows, did seek a presidential pardon related to Jan. 6, 2021. “Mr. Meadows did seek that pardon, yes, ma’am,” she answered in response to Cheney’s question. In addition to Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump, also sought a pardon, Hutchinson told the committee.
- Hutchinson said she heard Trump say he didn’t care that his supporters had weapons: Hutchinson testified that she overheard Trump saying that he did not care if his supporters had weapons — and suggested he had no issue with them marching to the Capitol armed. “I overheard the President say something to the effect of ‘I don’t F-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the F-ing mags away. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in, take the F-ing mags away.”
- Trump and Meadows were told that there were weapons among supporters at Jan. 6 rally held at Ellipse: Meadows and Trump himself were aware of the possibility of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, including that Trump supporters had weapons when they gathered on the Ellipse that day, Hutchinson testified. Hutchinson also testified that Ornato said he talked to Trump about weapons at his rally on Jan. 6, 2021. The House select committee investigation learned from law enforcement reports that people at the Trump rally on the Ellipse had pepper spray, knives, brass knuckles, Tasers and blunt objects that could be used as weapons, Cheney said on Tuesday.
- Hutchinson heard Proud Boys and Oath Keepers mentioned leading up to Jan. 6: Hutchinson told the committee she heard the names of two far-right groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keeper, mentioned leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. “I recall hearing the word ‘Oath Keeper’ and hearing the word ‘Proud Boys’ closer to the planning of the January 6 rally, when Mr. Giuliani would be around,” Hutchinson said in a video the committee played of one of her previous depositions. Rep. Cheney noted that “Hutchinson has no detailed knowledge of any planning involving the Proud Boys for Jan. 6.” Dozens of people connected to the Proud Boys have been arrested for their alleged participation in the Capitol riot, and leaders of both groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged role that day, some of whom provided security that day for allies to Trump, including Roger Stone.
- Meadows told Hutchinson “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6”: Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told his aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Jan. 2, 2021, that “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,” she testified on Tuesday. She said he told her this after she spoke with former President Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who told her “something to the effect of ‘we’re going to the Capitol.'” Hutchinson said that Meadows “was scrolling through his phone; I remember leaning against the doorway and saying, ‘I just had an interesting conversation with Rudy, Mark. It sounds like we’re going to go to the Capitol.’ He didn’t look up from his phone and said something to the effect of ‘there’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know, things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.” She said: “That evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on Jan. 6.” Hutchinson testified that she heard a secondhand account of how Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol on January 6 that he lunged to the front of his presidential limo and tried to turn the wheel.
- Days before the riot, Giuliani said “we’re going to the Capitol”: Hutchinson testified Tuesday that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told her on Jan. 2, 2021 – four days before the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters – that “we’re going to the Capitol” on January 6, and that President Trump himself was also planning to be there. “Cass, are you excited for the 6th? It’s going to be a great day. … We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great. The president is going to be there, it’s going to look powerful,” Giuliani said, according to Hutchinson, who also said Giuliani told her that Trump would be with members of Congress that day. It was previously known that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol on January 6, but Hutchinson’s testimony establishes for the first time that people around Trump had advance knowledge of this plan.
- Hutchinson says Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 was “un-American” and “unpatriotic” Hutchinson said Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 was “unpatriotic” and ‘un-American.” The committee asked Hutchinson to describe her real-time reaction from January 6, when Trump slammed Vice President Mike Pence in a tweet at 2:24 p.m. ET, which was after his supporters invaded the Capitol, forcing Pence, lawmakers, and staffers to run for their lives. “As a staffer… I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, and really it felt personal. It was really sad,” Hutchinson said. “As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We’re watching the capitol building get defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard in that moment to digest… I still struggle to work through the emotions of that.”
Trump attempts to cast Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday as revenge
From CNN’s Gabby Orr and Pamela Brown
Reacting in real time to the damning testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, former President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday he “hardly know[s]” Hutchinson, and personally rejected a request she made to join his post-presidency staff at Mar-a-Lago.
“When she requested to go with certain others of my team to Florida after my having served a full term in office, I personally turned her request down,” Trump said on Truth Social during Hutchinson’s live testimony to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
Trump attempted to cast Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday as revenge, claiming she was “very upset and angry that I didn’t want her” at his Palm Beach residence.
The former President’s attempt to distance himself from Hutchinson, who he described as “bad news” on Tuesday, came after the committee showed renderings of the West Wing to demonstrate just how close she was to the Oval Office as an assistant to Meadows. Multiple former White House aides also publicly vouched for Hutchinson’s proximity to Trump and his chief of staff before and during her appearance on Tuesday.
“Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump [White House] worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is,” tweeted former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.
In response to this, one former White House aide said, “everyone high up at the White House knew her. And even if Trump didn’t know her name, he most certainly recognized her. She traveled on Air Force One with Mark for every trip.”
Hutchinson may not be a well-known name outside of Trump world, but she was an access point to the inside of it when Meadows was the former President’s chief of staff. If lawmakers wanted to get in touch with Trump, they called Hutchinson, not the White House switchboard. When they had a message to push to Meadows, they rang Hutchinson, not the legislative affairs staffer, as reported by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Trump has previously downplayed his relationship to key witnesses who have cooperated with the House probe.
Days after the committee revealed that Trump’s former body man, Nick Luna, testified that he called then-Vice President Mike Pence a “wimp” on Jan. 6, 2021, the former President denied doing so and said he didn’t know who the aide was.
“One guy got up and said that he heard me calling Mike Pence a wimp … I don’t even know who these people are,” Trump told a crowd in Nashville earlier this month.
But days later, British filmmaker Alex Holden, who has also testified before the committee, released a video clip of Trump personally directing Luna – by name – to help properly stage one of his on-camera interviews for Holden’s documentary.
Trump has often attempted to downplay his familiarity with aides and allies with whom he was once close.
Mark Meadows sought a presidential pardon, aide testifies
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the committee that he did seek a presidential pardon related to Jan. 6.
“Mr. Meadows did seek that pardon, yes, ma’am,” she answered in response to Rep. Liz Cheney’s question.
In addition to Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump, also sought a pardon, Hutchinson told the committee.
3 members of Trump’s administration resigned following Jan. 6 riot
From CNN’s Sam Woodward
Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, highlighted in today’s hearing three Cabinet members who resigned following Trump’s response to the insurrection at the Capitol. Here’s what they said about leaving:
Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao: The day after the riot, Chao, who is married to Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, posted her resignation on Twitter.
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: In her resignation letter to the former President, DeVos, who served as education secretary for four years, wrote “there is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me. “
Former Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger: After then-President Trump tweeted out on Jan. 6, 2021, that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage” to send votes back to the states, Pottinger, a former Marine Intelligence Officer, and White House aide for four years, resigned. In a video provided by the select committee, Pottinger described seeing the tweet for the first time.
“I read that tweet and made a decision at the moment to resign,” he said. “That’s where I knew I was leaving that day, once I read that tweet.”
Hutchinson “disgusted” at Trump’s “unpatriotic” “un-American” attacks on Pence on Jan. 6
From CNN’s Clare Foran
Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she felt “disgusted” at seeing former President Donald Trump tweet attacks directed at then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6 — part of the President’s pressure campaign on Pence to try to enlist him in the effort to overturn the election results, which Pence resisted.
Hutchinson called Trump’s attacks on Pence “unpatriotic” and “un-American” and said of the storming of the Capitol, “we were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney displayed a tweet from Trump on Jan. 6 at 2:24 p.m. in which Trump said that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” Cheney then asked Hutchinson how she reacted to seeing that.
“As a staffer that works to always represent the administration to the best of my ability, and to showcase the good things that he had done for the country, I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, it felt personal, I was really sad. As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie,” Hutchinson said.
Watch the moment here:
See texts that Meadows sent on Jan. 6
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is testifying Tuesday before the Jan. 6 House select committee.
CNN obtained 2,319 text messages that Meadows handed over to the Jan. 6 committee that were sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden’s inauguration, including more than 150 on Jan. 6, 2021.
Meadows’ texts, which he selectively provided to the panel, show that even those closest to former President Donald Trump believed he had the power to stop the violence in real time.
CNN has a minute-by-minute timeline of the notable text messages that Meadows sent and received on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, which have been verified by CNN. The texts include messages from former White House officials, Meadows associates and Republican members of Congress, as well as Trump’s oldest son. There are also numerous texts from reporters at news organizations such as The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News and CNN.
Here are some exchanges mentioned during the hearing:
Read them all here:
Meadows said that Trump thought Pence deserved chants calling for him to be hanged, according to aide
Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said that she heard Meadows say that former President Trump did not think the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters were doing anything wrong and that Vice President Mike Pence deserved to face chants that calling for his hanging.
“I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, ‘Mark, we need to do something more, they’re literally calling for the vice president to be f—ing hung.’ And Mark had responded something to the effect of, ‘You heard it, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.'”
“To which Pat said something, ‘this is f—ing crazy, we need to be doing something more,” and briefly stepped into Meadows’ office,” she continued. The Pat she is referring to is former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
Hutchinson said that was the moment she “understood there to be the rioters in the Capitol that were chanting for the vice president to be hung.”
Trump told Meadows to ask Michael Flynn and Roger Stone what was going to happen on Jan. 6, aide says
From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz
The night before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump instructed his chief of staff Mark Meadows to ask Roger Stone and Michael Flynn what was going to happen on Jan. 6, Cassidy Hutchinson testified on Tuesday.
Hutchinson, who was a top Meadows aide, said that Meadows called both Flynn and Stone that evening.
Meadows also repeatedly tried to go the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5, Hutchinson said, where Flynn and Stone, along with Trump allies John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, had set up a makeshift “war room.”
“I had made it clear to Mr. Meadows that I didn’t believe it was a smart idea for him to go to the Willard Hotel that night,” Hutchinson testified. “I wasn’t sure everything that was going on at the Willard Hotel, but I knew enough about what Mr. Giuliani and his associates were pushing during this period.”
“I didn’t think that it was something appropriate for the White House chief of staff to attend or to consider involvement in,” Hutchinson added. “I made that clear to Mr. Meadows.”
Meadows eventually agreed to stay at the White House and call into a meeting with those at the Willard.
Stone and Flynn both attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 but are not charged with a crime. They both appeared before the select committee and repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment.
Stone has been central to the criminal allegations against the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers. Stone had a protective detail made up of members of the Oath Keepers, a few of whom have been criminally charged with seditious conspiracy. In court filings, those members have argued that they were only in Washington to protect VIP rally attendees.
Meadows told Cipollone that Trump didn’t want to do anything about the Jan. 6 violence, aide says
Not long after the rioters broke into the US Capitol, former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone rushed into Mark Meadows’ office demanding a meeting with former President Donald Trump, the former White House chief of staff’s aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the Jan. 6 committee.
“I remember Pat saying to him something to the effect of, ‘the rioters have gotten to the Capitol. We need to go down and see the President now,'” Hutchinson said in a videotaped interview.
“And Mark looked up at him and said, ‘he doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,'” she said.
Cipollone emphasized the need for action to control the situation to Meadows, Hutchison added.
She said Cipollone “very clearly said this to Mark — something to the effect of, ‘Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood’s going to be on your f-ing hands. This is getting out of control. I’m going down there.”
Meadows then handed his phones to Hutchinson and walked out of his office with Cipollone, she told the committee.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/january-6-hearings-june-28/h_6e0bd05215c3716b9d4312140b6e15ea
