January 6 hearing: Top 5 moments of explosive Cassidy Hutchinson testimony on Trump, attack on Capitol

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Tuesday provided some of the most detailed testimony yet of the House January 6 Committee’s several hearings. 

Hutchinson, who had significant access in the White House, detailed former President Donald Trump’s demands to be taken to the Capitol on Jan. 6, his treatment of Secret Service agents, and his reaction to threats to his vice president. 

Trump denied Hutchinson’s allegations in a series of 12 posts on his Truth Social networking app. The former president said she is “A Total Phony!!!” and called the January 6 Committee “a Kangaroo Court.”

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Here are five of the top moments from Hutchinson’s hearing Tuesday. 

Trump lunged at Secret Service agent

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Hutchinson recounted a conversation she had with former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato in the wake of Trump’s Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse during questioning from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. 

According to Hutchinson, Ornato told her Trump still thought when he left the stage that his security detail would take him to the Capitol, where his supporters had already broken in as Congress counted electoral votes. 

When Trump’s top Secret Service agent Robert Engel told the former president that he could not go to the Capitol for security reasons, Trump exploded at him, according to Hutchinson. 

“When Bobby had relayed to him we’re not, we don’t have the assets to do it… the president had very strong, very angry response to that. Tony described him as being irate,” Hutchinson said. “The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the f-ing president, take me up to the Capitol now.”

Engel would not take Trump to the Capitol, however, according to Hutchinson. 

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“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 take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol,” Hutchinson continued. “Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel. When Mr. Ornato had recounted this story to me he motioned towards his clavicles.” 

McCarthy demands Trump stay away

Shortly before that exchange, Hutchinson was standing at Trump’s rally when she got a call from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. She said that McCarthy was upset and demanding that Trump not come to the Capitol. 

“You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here. Why would you lie to me?” Hutchinson said McCarthy told her.

“I said, I’m not lying. I wasn’t lying to you, sir,” Hutchinson said. “We’re not going to the Capitol.”

McCarthy then said he saw Trump say on the stage at his rally that he would be coming to the Capitol, and again demanded that the White House stay away.

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Hutchinson said she confirmed that the president would not be going to the Capitol and later texted McCarthy to confirm that. 

Trump demands Secret Service get rid of ‘mags’

Hutchinson also said Trump was upset about the lack of people in the crowd for his Jan. 6 Ellipse speech, and demanded that aides dispense with screening for attendees to help fill the crowd.

Hutchinson said that law enforcement confiscated a variety of weapons from people going through magnetometers to Trump’s rally, and that law enforcement saw many people outside the event with weapons. 

“He thought the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in. But another leading reason, likely the primary reason, is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons — what the Secret Service deems as weapons,” she said in recorded testimony Tuesday.

“I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, ‘I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons,'” she also said via video. “‘They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march the Capitol from here. Let people in, take the f-ing mags away.'”

Trump said VP deserved ‘Hang Mike Pence’ chants

Hutchinson said she heard a conversation between Meadows and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and in which Meadows said that Trump was happy with the rioters. In it, Meadows specifically said Trump dismissed protesters’ chants to hang former Vice President Mike Pence.

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“I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, ‘Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be f-ing hung,'” Hutchinson said. “And Mark had responded something to the effect of, ‘You heard him Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”

Trump tossed lunch when Barr said election not stolen

Hutchinson also revealed that Trump smashed a plate out of anger after former Attorney General Bill Barr said the Justice Department didn’t find significant fraud in the 2020 presidential election. 

Barr previously testified about his decision to make that comment and said it was key to ensuring transition of power to President Biden. He made the comment in an interview with the Associated Press. 

Hutchinson said Trump threw his lunch against the wall upon reading the article.

“I remember hearing noise coming from down the hallway, so I poked my head out of the office. I saw the valet walking towards our office. He had said, get the chief down to the dining room,” Hutchinson said. 

Hutchinson said she followed, and once she arrived to the dining room, she saw that the valet was changing the tablecloth.

She said she “first noticed there is ketchup dripping down the wall and there’s a shattered porcelain plate 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, which was causing them to have to clean up. So I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup up off of the wall to help the valet out.”