Jan. 6 hearing witness: Irate Trump grabbed wheel, demanded to go to Capitol

Cassidy Hutchinson said Trump was warned about potential violence, crimes.

Last Updated: June 28, 2022, 4:55 PM EDT

The House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack heard stunning testimony on Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

She told the committee and an international TV audience that then-President Donald Trump was warned about potential violence and crimes, that he wanted supporters with weapons let into his Jan. 6 rally, and that she was told he then demanded his security detail take him to the Capitol, going so far as to grab the wheel of the presidential SUV.

This was the sixth hearing this month investigating what the committee says was the conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn the election.

Jun 28, 2022, 2:48 PM EDT

Witness: Trump didn't want to respond as attack on Capitol unfolded

In videotaped testimony, Hutchinson said she recalled seeing Meadows in his office at the White House, flipping through his phone as Trump supporters marched to the Capitol, and then violently breaching it.

"I said, 'The rioters are getting really close. Have you talked to the president?'" she testified. "Meadows said, 'No. He wants to be alone right now.'"

"I felt like I was watching," she continued in videotaped testimony, "a bad car accident that was about to happen. You can't stop it but you want to do something. I remember thinking in that moment that Mark needs to snap out of this."

Cassidy Hutchinson arrives to testify during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, U.S., June 28, 2022.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

She said she recalled White House counsel Pat Cipollone "barreling" towards Meadows's office, and saying something to the effect of, "''Mark, something needs to be done, or people are going to die and blood is going to be on your effing hands.'"

She said she later overheard Cipollone and Meadows talking about the "Hang Mike Pence" chants at the Capitol.

"You heard it Pat -- he thinks Mike deserves it. He thinks they aren't doing anything wrong," Meadows said to Cipollone when the White House lawyer said they needed to respond, according to Hutchinson.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

Jun 28, 2022, 2:45 PM EDT

Witness 'disgusted' by Trump’s attack on Pence

Cassidy Hutchinson said she was "disgusted" by President Trump's Twitter post during the Capitol attack disparaging then-Vice President Mike Pence for not single-handedly rejecting Joe Biden's electoral victory.

"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" Trump tweeted.

Hutchinson recalled "feeling frustrated, disappointed, and really -- it felt personal. I was really saddened. As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American."

Matthew Pottinger, who was then serving as the deputy national security adviser, told the committee in previous testimony, it said, that he decided to quit because of what Trump said in that social media post.

"I read that tweet, and made a decision at that moment to resign," Pottinger said. "That's where I knew that I was leaving that day, once I read that tweet."

Jun 28, 2022, 2:33 PM EDT

Hutchinson: White House contact with Willard Hotel 'war room'

After a 10-minute recess, Vice Chair Liz Cheney asked Cassidy Hutchinson about interactions with her boss, Trump's chief of staff, had with key individuals ahead of Jan. 6.

Hutchinson said Trump asked Meadows to speak by phone with Roger Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn the day before the rally, and that Meadows asked her about meeting them at the Willard Hotel, in a "war room" assembled on the night of Jan. 5, which she expressed she didn't think was a "smart idea."

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection, June 28, 2022.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

"I wasn't sure about everything that was going on at the Willard Hotel, although I knew enough about what Mr. Giuliani and his associates were pushing during this period," she said, after recalling earlier Giuliani mentioning "Oath Keepers" and "Proud Boys." "I didn't think that it was something appropriate for the White House chief of staff to attend or to consider involving in."

Jun 28, 2022, 2:29 PM EDT

Witness: Trump threw his lunch against wall in anger

Hutchinson testified about the moment President Trump learned about an interview then-Attorney General Bill Barr had done with the Associated Press, in which Barr made clear the Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

She remembered hearing a noise, and then going to the White House dining room to find the valet cleaning up. Ketchup, she said, was smeared on the wall and a broken plate was on the floor.

"The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general's AP interview, and had thrown his lunch against the wall," Hutchinson testified live on Tuesday. The valet warned her to "steer clear" of the president.

It wasn't the first time Trump had thrown a dish out of anger, Hutchinson said.

"There were several times through my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere," she said.

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