Donald Trump is still flipping out over recent proceedings of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. On Tuesday, the panel publicly heard from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, and Trump has taken particular offense to Hutchinson’s testimony — calling concerns of potential witness intimidation targeting Hutchinson and others to mind.
“The lies and fabricated stories being told to the partisan Highly Unselect Committee, not only by the phony social climber who got caught yesterday, but by many others, are a disgrace to our, in serious decline, Nation,” Trump complained on Truth Social in an early Wednesday meltdown. “No cross examination, no real Republicans, no lawyers, NO NOTHING. Fake stories and an all Fake Narrative being produced, with ZERO pushback allowed. Unselects should be forced to disband. WITCH HUNT!” Hutchinson didn’t “get caught.” One incident she recounted — involving then-President Trump allegedly lunging towards the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle and getting in a physical altercation with the head of his Secret Service detail — hasn’t been conclusively disproved, and she was clear the whole time she was sharing what she’d been told by someone who was in the vehicle.
As for other portions of her testimony, Hutchinson was, in fact, personally there. She says, for instance, that she personally witnessed a conversation on January 6 in which Trump expressed anger at the pace of letting people in to the large rally where he spoke in D.C. ahead of the Capitol breach. “I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,” Trump said on January 6, according to prior testimony to the riot committee from Hutchinson. “Take the f’ing [magnetometers] away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.” Quotes Hutchinson shared should no doubt be largely understood as paraphrases rather than direct quotations. For Trump to have expressed sentiments along the lines of what Hutchinson recounted would indicate he was inciting the crowd with the knowledge of the potentially deadly weapons among onlookers, which would add serious weight — and corrupt intent — to the conspiracy against the U.S. government in which the then-president engaged.
“Trump knew the crowd on Jan. 6 was heavily armed. Prepared for violence. He wanted the magnetometers taken down, as the crowd was no threat to him. He then directed them to the Capitol, where they threatened his VP. And he was perfectly fine with that,” riot panel member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) summarized Tuesday. Schiff has directly called for the Justice Department to investigate Trump. The former president, meanwhile, also posted a late Tuesday rant about the Hutchinson hearing after taking to Truth Social earlier in the day about it: “The New York Times and Washington Post failed to even mention that today’s Unselect witness lost all credibility when she got caught in a ridiculous lie,” he claimed. He probably had the alleged altercation in mind, although Hutchinson has — again — not been “caught” lying. “Our Country has lost all confidence in the media and our elections. Sad!” Trump angrily added.
“Ms. Hutchinson testified, under oath, and recounted what she was told. Those with knowledge of the episode also should testify under oath,” lawyer Jody Hunt, who’s representing Hutchinson, posted on Twitter in response to a report a Secret Service-connected source claimed the then-president’s Secret Service detail leader and driver were prepared to state under oath neither of them were assaulted and Trump never reached for the steering wheel. NBC’s Peter Alexander says, per a source, that agents who were in Trump’s vehicle “do not deny that Trump was irate and demanded they drive to the Capitol,” which is what’s said to have sparked the altercation. It allegedly took place after Trump’s January 6 speech.
“The woman, who was a BIG Trump fan long AFTER January 6th (if her Fake Stories were true, why would she want to be?), was let go and not wanted in Florida, so she made up phony and completely outrageous stories, the craziest of which has already been proven to be a complete lie,” Trump claimed on Tuesday. “The Secret Service said, according to the Media, it wasn’t true. Wow! She has now lost all credibility, just like the partisan Witch Hunt perpetuated by the Unselect Committee of political hacks. MAGA!” Actually, there has been no apparent official dispute of Hutchinson’s account from the Secret Service as of this point.
“So, they Rigged & Stole a Presidential Election, and nobody, especially the Unselects, wants to go after the people that did it – Only after those wanting Election Integrity! What is happening to our beautiful USA?” Trump also complained late Tuesday. Blah, blah, blah. Is his response to everything to bring back up his false claims of election fraud?
