Jan 6 Witness Describes a Desperate President
"What did the President know and when did he know it?' The answer was “Everything” and “Immediately.” --Charles P. Pierce, Esquire
The House Select Committee investigating the insurrection of January 6 called for a special session this week, and speculation was rampant that they’d found The Smoking Gun that would send Donald Trump into the dustbins of history.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows, was the sole witness. Congress member Liz Cheney did the honors of walking us through the testimony, mostly asking yes or no questions in reference to various video clips of depositions.
There was no blockbuster revelation in this testimony, just pieces serving to fill in the picture of life at the White House. Hutchinson wasn’t included in any of the really conspiratorial conversations, but she did see how people reacted to events in real time.
Without a doubt, her testimony painted a picture of an out-of-control idiot running in circles around the Oval office. The mainstream media loved it.
You can infer a lot from what she said, but a wanna-be Mafia Don’s consigliere would make mincemeat out of her testimony in a court of law. Fortunately, this wasn’t a legal hearing, so the blowback was limited to the former President harrumphing about how he didn’t know her from a hole in the ground, and if he did, it was because she served coffee.
The Never-Trumper set was impressed to the point of ridiculousness.
Over at CNN they wheeled out the “bombshell” headlines because that’s the only way they know to cover something they might not have heard before. The news network had access to what they said was a group chat among assorted anonymous former Trump advisors.
Trump was already bracing for an explosive day of testimony from Hutchinson, who previously told the House select committee that the former President approved of rioters chanting violent threats against Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021.
"This is a bombshell. It's stunning. It's shocking. The story about 'The Beast' -- I don't have words. It's just stunning," said one Trump adviser, referring to the presidential limousine.
"This paints a picture of Trump completely unhinged and completely losing all control which, for his base, they think of him as someone who is in command at all times. This completely flies in the face of that," the adviser added.
Here are some of the high points from her testimony.
On January 2, Rudy Giuliani blabbed about something big happening on January 6. In response to Hutcheson’s questions about what she’s heard, Mark Meadows said things might get "real, real bad" on January 6.
On January 4, she received a call from Robert O'Brien, the national security advisor, wanting to speak with her boss about potential violence on the 6th.
Hutchinson said it was her understanding that Mark Meadows called Roger Stone and Michael Flynn the night of January 5, and that Meadows had been asked to go to Bannon & Giuliani's "war room" at the Willard Hotel.
Hutchinson said Meadows and deputy chief of staff for operations Tony Ornato met on the morning of the 6th and discussed reports on weapons being carried by rally attendees. She said her boss could barely be bothered to look up from his phone.
Trump was, according to her testimony, "fucking furious" after see images of the Ellipse showing a less-than-massive crowd on July 6.
When it was explained to the former president that some people were avoiding the area in front of the stage because they didn’t want their weapons confiscated, his response was that he wasn't worried the armed people were there to hurt him.
Hutchinson recounted White House counsel Pat Cipollone repeatedly telling her to make sure Trump did not travel to the Capitol. On the morning of the 6th, the admonition included the comment that they would get "charged with every crime imaginable."
Trump apparently believed that he would be going to the Capitol after giving his speech, having been told repeatedly that security arrangements were being made. Her secondhand testimony indicates that the former president attempted to grab the steering wheel of the “beast” (i.e., his armored SUV), saying "I'm the fucking president, take me up to the Capitol now!" and assaulted Secret Service agent Bobby Engle.
She testified that her boss watched TV coverage of the riots and was unresponsive to pleas that he tell the president to say something to end the violence.
In response to reports of rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” Meadows told Cipollone that Trump thought Pence deserved it, and that the rioters inside the Capitol were "doing nothing wrong."
She had direct knowledge of Meadows and Roger Stone asking for presidential pardons.
There were other tidbits, but I think you can get the gist, namely that there were some really bad people in the White House working for a really bad man.
There were a couple of other interesting moments during the hearing.
One was where Hutchinson described Trump’s reaction after learning about an Associated Press interview given by then-Attorney General Bill Barr where he discounted claims of election fraud.
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.
The second event of note came during Rep. Cheney’s closing remarks, wherein she suggested the committee had evidence of witness tampering..
She made a point of saying while the committee has seen many witnesses — including many Republicans — testify fully, it has not been true for "every witness."
"We have received evidence of one particular practice that raises significant concern," she said.
One witness received phone calls telling them to do "the right thing" and how to "remain in good graces in Trump world," while being reminded that "Trump does read transcripts," Cheney said.
Another was told Trump "is thinking of you – he knows you're loyal and you're going to do the right thing."
Let me close with a snip from Charles P. Pierce at Esquire:
As it happens, Tuesday was a kind of anniversary. On June 28, 1973, Senator Howard Baker, Jr. (R-Tenn) of the Senate Select Committee On Presidential Campaign Practices—the Watergate committee, under Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina—began his questioning of former White House counsel John Dean, who had spent several days laying out with bloodless precision what would become known as “the White House horrors.” Baker asked the question that made him famous.
“The central question at this point is simply put: What did the President know and when did he know it?”
Nobody asked Cassidy Hutchinson that question. It was moot. The answer, as she spent Tuesday telling the committee, was “Everything” and “Immediately.”
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com