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

Cassidy Hutchinson recalled how Trump was "furious" with the crowd size of his "Save America" rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and with aides who didn't want to let in individuals in who had weapons, which officials said ranged from AR-15-style rifles to bear spray.

"I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I heard the president say, "'I don't care that they have weapons. They are not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in,'" she recalled. "'They can march to the Capitol after the rally is over.'"

Vice chair Liz Cheney asked Americans to "reflect on that for a moment" and remember what Trump called on the crowd to do, knowing they were equipped with weapons and body armor.

Hutchinson described Meadows' underwhelming reaction to learning about the list of weapons that people had in the rally crowd that morning -- including knives, bear spray, guns and flagpoles with spears attached to them.

"I remember distinctly Mark not looking up from his phone," Hutchinson said, noting it took Meadows a few moments to respond. When he did respond, he asked [security officials], "Alright, anything else?"

In previously taped deposition, Hutchinson told the committee it was accurate to say Meadows "did not act" on concerns of violence.

The bombshell information the committee is unfolding through Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony is that the Trump administration and Trump himself knew about the potential for violence before Jan. 6.

"I recall hearing the word 'Oath Keeper' and hearing the word 'Proud Boys' closer to the planning of the January 6 rally when Mr. Giuliani would be around," Hutchinson said in a taped deposition played by Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney then displayed a Capitol Police bulletin on Jan. 3 warning, "targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protesters as they were previously, but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th."

Hutchinson also recalled receiving a call from then-national security adviser Robert O'Brien, after the Capitol Police bulletin, asking if he could speak with Meadows about the potential violence. She wasn't sure if that call ever happened.

Hutchinson described Tuesday conversations she had with Rudy Giuliani and then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 2, 2021 -- four days before the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Hutchinson said Giuliani said to her something "to the effect of 'We're going to the Capitol. It's going to be great. The president's going to be there. He's going to look powerful.'"

When Hutchinson went to Meadows' office to relay her discussion with Giuliani, Meadows told her: "There is a lot going on, Cass, I don't know, things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6."

"That evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on Jan. 6," Hutchinson testified. "I had a deeper concern with what was happening with the planning aspects."