Former President Donald Trump knew that his supporters who attended a rally on January 6, 2021 they could be armed, but instead of worrying, he asked for the metal detectors to be removed, in addition to affirming that they were not there “to harm him.”
This is revealed the testimony before Congress of Cassidy Hutchinson, assistant to the former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.
The former White House official had testified on several occasions before the Congressional Select Committee investigating the assault on the Capitol. This Tuesday participate in a live hearing.
“I heard the president say something like: ‘I don’t care if they have guns. They are not here to harm me. Remove the directors. Let my people in, you can march to the Capitol from here. Let people in, take the fing detectors away,” Hutchinson revealed. told him about the violence on Capitol Hill, including closing the door of the car in which he was driving to the White House.
It should be remembered that Meadows has refused to testify before the Select Committee that, for this session –announced at the last minute–, is led by Republican Representative Liz Cheney (Wyoming).
“ he was in a secure vehicle at the time of making a call…When I went to open the door to let him know, he immediately closed it,” Hutchinson said. “I don’t know who she was talking to. It wasn’t something he did on a regular basis, especially when I was going to feed him information. So I was a little taken aback, but I didn’t give it much importance”.
She said that she would once again report the information from the Washington, DC Police about some altercations with Trump supporters, but Meadows closed the door again. When she was finally able to talk to her boss, he had virtually “no reaction” to the reports of violence.
“He hardly reacted. I remember him saying ‘okay’. Kind of like ‘how much time does the president have left on his speech?’” Hutchinson said.
Courage against the Secret Service
Hutchinson’s testimony has become one of the most revealing about what was happening in the White House around former President Trump’s close circle, such as the The fact that he was furious with his Secret Service personnel because they prevented him from going to the Capitol, considering it “very dangerous.”
“That night was the first moment I remember feeling scared and nervous about what might happen,” she said.
The incident with the Secret Service, he acknowledged, was something he heard “second hand,” of how Trump was so angry at his Secret Service staff for stopping him from going to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 that he lunged to the front of his presidential limousine and tried to turn the wheel.
Hutchinson spoke of another Trump backlash, when former Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press that the Justice Department did not found evidence of widespread electoral fraud, as the former president and his closest allies claimed.
He said he heard a “noise” coming from the hallway and looked out to discover a official who asked Meadows to go to the dining room, where the president was.
“After Mark returned So, I left the office and went down to the dining room and noticed that the door was open and the assistant was inside the dining room changing the tablecloth on the dining room table, ”she indicated. “He gestured for her to come in and then pointed to the front of the room near the fireplace mantel and the TV where I noticed, for the first time, that there was ketchup dripping down the wall and there was a smashed china plate on the wall. floor”.
Aide told Hutchinson that the former president was “extremely angry” with Barr.
“[Me dijo] that [Trump] had thrown his lunch against the wall, so he had to clean it up,” he said. She helped clean the wall with a towel.