Enraged Trump knew mob was armed — former aide
Donald Trump tried to seize the steering wheel of his presidential car and grabbed his Secret Service agent by the throat on the day of the Capitol riots, a former White House aide testified yesterday.
Cassidy Hutchinson said Trump was “irate” when Bobby Engel, his head of security, told him it was unsafe for him to join supporters on January 6 2021.
According to her evidence, Trump said: “I’m the f***ing president, take me up to the Capitol now.”
The former president was in the “Beast”, the secure limousine used by US presidents, and reached to the front of the car “to grab at the steering wheel”.when Engel told him to remove his hand, Trump “used his free hand to lunge towards” the agent’s neck. Anthony Ornato, who coordinated physical security at the White House and was in the car at the time, related the account to Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, 25, saw the agent soon afterwards and he appeared “discombobulated” by the experience, she said in a surprise appearance before the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol last year.
She served as an aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows and was present in the White House after Trump’s election defeat and his ensuing attempt to stay in power.
In a live televised appearance, she said the former president and his aides were warned of the potential for violence in the days before January 6, when Congress would certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
Hutchinson testified: “I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘You know, I don’t f***ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f***ing mags [magnetometers] away. Let my people in.’”
Trump was “furious” that those who carried assault rifles or pistols were unable to pass security barriers because it left empty spaces at his rally outside the White House, she added.
After his speech, in which he urged supporters to “fight like hell” against the certification of Biden’s win, Trump planned to join those heading to the Capitol, Hutchinson said.
Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White*
House counsel, voiced legal concerns about Trump’s plan to march to the Capitol. “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable”, Hutchinson recalled Cipollone saying at the time.
Trump was also informed that his supporters were chanting “Hang Mike Pence” of his vice-president.
According to Hutchinson, Trump replied that “Mike deserves it”.
It was when Trump got into the car that his security team told him they could not safely transport him to Capitol Hill, triggering his angry outburst.
Trump denied much of what Hutchinson said on his social media platform, Truth Social, including that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential SUV or that he said Pence deserved to be hung.
“I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is,” Trump wrote, calling her a “total phony” and “bad news.” — Telegraph Group Ltd