Democracy on the edge

The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol didn’t need to make it dramatic with a surprise witness and an unscheduled hearing when the Congress was out of town, because hearing directly yesterday from Cassidy Hutchinson, privy to the innermost workings of the Trump White House, exposed damming secrets of Donald Trump’s guilt in his plot against America.

Hutchinson, a conservative Republican who served as a close aide to other conservative Republicans, was the right hand to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, seeing and hearing everything in the Oval Office and West Wing.

She calmly testified that Trump wanted to overrule the Secret Service and take down the metal detectors and allow armed people into his Jan. 6 rally, since they were his supporters and wouldn’t hurt him. She testified that he was planning to go with the armed mob to the Capitol, perhaps even into the House chamber during the electoral vote count. She testified that when the Secret Service said it was too dangerous, Trump screamed, “I’m the f—ing president! Take me up to the Capitol!” When they still said no, he tried to grab the limo’s steering wheel. She testified that back at the White House he got so angry that he threw his lunch against the wall and she was trying to clean ketchup off the dining room’s wall.

She testified that when they heard the chants on TV of “Hang Mike Pence!,” Trump said “Mike deserves it.”

She testified that Trump refused to call off the mob despite pleas from his staff. She testified that both Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, ringleaders of the attempted coup, wanted presidential pardons.

After Hutchinson was done and her shocking words still hung in the air, Rep. Liz Cheney said that the committee has evidence of witness intimidation by Trump forces and obstruction, possible crimes on top of the crimes of Jan. 6.

However bad Jan. 6 was, it is now known by the country that it was much worse.