The January 6 committee held a sudden January 6th hearing where they questioned and revealed video of earlier under oath testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, 25 year old former aid to Trump Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. It was strong.
Meadows told her on Jan 5 that it might get real bad on Jan 6.
Trump was furious (he seems always to be furious) that security kept several thousand who came to see him in the Ellipse from entering because they had weapons (knives, batons, body armor, gas masks, AR-15s, pistols, bear spray, spears on the end of flags, etc.) on them and refused to go through the mangetometers. Was he concerned that they had weapons? Of course not, the weapons were meant for others...
“I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f-ing mags away.”
So what did the president do when he discovered so many in his crowd were carrying weapons? Sent them to the Capitol and told them to fight like hell. This is a premeditated weaponized assault on the people guarding and in the Capitol as far as I can see. And he promised to go with them. And he was prevented from going down to the Capitol by his security when he was in "The Beast" (the presidential armored vehicle) and he lunged forward to grab the wheel, had his arm restrained and used the other hand to attack his security man's "clavicle" (probably neck). They drove him to the White House.
In the White House some approached Mark Meadows and told him that a violent, armed crowd was approaching the Capitol and that he should do something. Meadows was unconcerned and just said that Trump didn't want to do anything.
By the way, this same Mark Meadows - Chief of Staff, former founder of the Freedom Caucus in the House to obstruct and cripple as much of the Federal Government as he could - was going to join the War Room on the 5th at the Willard hotel with "lawyers" Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, but eventually was talked out of it and said he would dial in instead. The War Room pretty clearly were part of the planning of the coup.
During the riot inside the Capitol the rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" and Trump was implored to calm the rioters, but instead he sent out an inflammatory text expressing his "disappointment" in Mike Pence. The rioters read out the text over a bullhorn. When Meadows was told he had to do something to affect Trump, Meadows said that the president didn't think the rioters were doing anything wrong, and that Pence "deserves it."
Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Adviser decided to quit the moment he saw that tweet. Others decided to quit that day as well.
Hutchinson categorized people in the White House as falling into three categories in their reaction to that day
- Urged Trump to take action to quell the riot - like Herschmann and Ivanka
- Neutral group that knew something had to be done even though he didn't want to
- Those who immediately shifted to deflecting and blaming others (BLM, Antifa) - Like Meadows
Hutchinson heard that Cabinet Members were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment declaring the president mentally incapable of governing.
Eventually Trump was forced to give a speech on the 7th to calm things down but was talked out of offering a pardon for all those in the coup (Meadows wanted that as well ... including himself clearly), but it looks like he did this to keep from being removed from office via the 25th amendment.
When Hutchinson was finished, Liz Cheney read a couple of sworn statements from other witnesses who testified to the Committee showing illegal and frightening witness tampering. One said they got a call "as long as you continue to be team player, and protect who you need to protect, you will stay in good graces with Trump, who reads the transcripts, so keep that in mind in your depositions". In case you missed it, this is a Mafia style death threat.
It just gets more and more nauseating. Unhinged madman megalomaniac inciting unhinged cult followers.
