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

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."

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."

"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."

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.

Cassidy Hutchinson recalled a shocking story of Trump's anger on Jan. 6 after being told he could not go to the Capitol to meet supporters following his "Save America" rally on the Ellipse -- leading to Trump physically assaulting his security detail on the way back to the White House.

Hutchinson recalled the conversation she had back at the White House just after the rally with Bobby Engel, part of Trump's security detail, who was "sitting in the chair, looking somewhat discombobulated," and Tony Ornato.

"As the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought they were going out of the Capitol and when Bobby had relayed to him were not, 'You don't have the access to do it, is not secure, we're going back to the West Wing.' The president had a very strong, very angry response to that," she recalled.

"Tony described him as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, 'I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now' -- to which Bobby responded, 'Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.' The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, 'Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol.'"

"Mr. Trump used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted the story to me, he motions towards his clavicle," she said.