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Choose Your Title:
A Madman Takes the Wheel
Holy Shit It Was Worse Than We Knew (If That is Possible)
What Did We Just Hear?
Giving New Meaning to "Pass the Ketchup"
Sedition. Period.
"He doesn't think they are doing anything wrong."
Unhinged
In The Room Where It Happened
Cassidy Hutchinson: American Patriot
Cassidy Hutchinson, the 25-year-old chief aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified in front of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol for over two hours on Tuesday. It was explosive.
(I apologize that my thesaurus has run out of descriptors for the testimony we hear at each hearing. This shit hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper, and words do not travel down that far.)
Hutchinson was steps away from the Oval Office every day during her Whitewash House tenure. As one in the most inner circle, she saw and heard the conversations and the behaviors. I'll outline some of the bombshells she brought with her. The testimony today is the most consequential yet. Please watch the entire hearing (video below). It’s jaw-dropping.
Shrug. Weapons? So what! Let 'em in! Hutchinson testified that during the rally, several attendees had had weapons confiscated from them as they entered through magnetometer machines ("mags"). Hutchinson testified, "I remember Tony [Chief of Operations Anthony Ornato] mentioning knives, guns in the form of pistols and rifles, bear spray, body armor, spears, and flagpoles. Spears were one item, flagpoles were one item. But then Tony had related to me something to the effect of and these effing people are fastening spears onto the ends of flagpoles." The committee also said that law enforcement had confiscated pepper spray, knives, brass knuckles, tasers, body armor, gas masks, batons, and blunt weapons from those entering the Ellipse area.
The committee played law enforcement recordings describing members of the mob outside the Ellipse climbing trees with AR-style weapons as well as handguns and long guns. There were many in the crowd who declined going through the mags so as to not have their weapons confiscated.
And the president* knew they were armed. The first reports of weapons spotted came as early as 8 a.m., and Mark Meadows was informed. Later, when 45 bitched about the empty spots in the area, he was told that the thinness of the crowd in the Ellipse area was due to people staying outside the mags area so that their weapons wouldn't be confiscated. He became angry. "The primary reason is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren't letting people through the mags with weapons."
He said, "I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take that effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away."
And later, he urged that armed mob toward the Capitol.
Who is Going to Protect the Secret Service? One of the most astounding revelations was the description of the scenario after 45 left the rally.
The then-president* wanted badly to go to the Capitol building. He had been wanting to do it for days, and his words of “I'll be right there with you” was not “just metaphorical.” He desperately wanted to be there in person, presumably to see and participate in the actual violent coup.
He worked with his team on a plan to walk with his minions to the Capitol. As late as 12:47, staff were working on a plan for him to do so. When it was becoming clearer that the Capitol police were severely undermanned, the security team nixed the idea. 45 was finally persuaded by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that “they were working on” getting him down there in “The Beast,” the armored limousine that is the official presidential vehicle. When he got in the Beast after the rally, he thought he was going to the Capitol.
Once they were in the Beast, however, secret service announced that it was too dangerous to go to the Capitol building and that they were going back to the West Wing. 45 became unhinged.
Hutchinson testified that he became "irate." "The president said something to the effect of I'm the f'ing president, take me up to the Capitol now, to which Bobby [head of security Bobby Engle] 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 then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel. And Mr. — when Mr. Ornato had recounted this story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles."
The President* of the United States of America. Lunging toward his secret service agent’s throat.
Granted, this story is secondhand. Ms. Hutchinson told us that this was told to her by Anthony Ornato, Whitewash House deputy chief of operations, about 45's primary secret service agent Bobby Engel while they were all together in Ornato's office after the rally. We need to get them under oath and have them answer some questions. And the driver of the Beast, too.
Baby get mad? Baby throw things. Hutchinson also testified that at times of frustration, the Toddler-in-Chief would throw plates of food, break dishes, or turn over tablecloths. She personally helped wipe ketchup from the walls of the dining room after at least one such tantrum, after da baby got wind of Barr's public statement denying election fraud.
Mark Meadows's sense of duty was on “Empty.” Ms. Hutchinson had riveting testimony about the events at the Whitewash House on January 6. She described numerous times how Meadows was completely checked out on that day.
Before the rally: In his office, sitting on the couch scrolling his phone the morning of January 6, he was told by Chief of Operations Tony Ornato that people were arriving to the rally armed. He didn't look up from his phone. "Anything else?" When asked if he had any questions, the reply was, "What are you hearing?" Meadows then asked if 45 had been notified that the attendees were armed, and Ornato answered yes.
During the rally: Hutchinson twice tried to inform Meadows of impending violence, but he was in a car on the phone, keeping the door closed. When she finally spoke to him many minutes later and told him that Capitol Police were being overrun, "He almost had a lack of reaction. I remember him saying Alright, something to the effect of how much longer does the President have left in this speech?"
After the rally: She testified about the afternoon of January 6, after the 45 had returned to the Whitewash House. It was about 2:00 and Mark Meadows was again in this office scrolling his phone. Hutchinson had been monitoring the events on TV, and she went to Meadows's office and asked if he was aware that the mob was getting closer to entering the Capitol. Meadows seemed unperturbed. She testified, "I said, the rioters are getting really close. Have you talked to the President? And he said, no, he wants to be alone right now; still looking at his phone."
A minute later, Pat Cipollone, Whitewash attorney, came "barreling down the hallway." In some distress about the events unfolding, Cipollone went into Meadows's office. Meadows was still scrolling his phone looked up and said, "he doesn't want to do anything, Pat."
Cipollone insisted that they talk to the president*, and around the time the chants of "Hang Mike Pence" started, Cipollone was becoming more alarmed, urging Meadows to act.
Hutchinson stated, "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."
Meadows moved his butt off the couch only when Cipollone entreated him again, "Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your f'ing hands."
Just a couple minutes after this, the 2:24 tweet went out, in which he said Pence "didn't have the courage."
The more to the "Wow!"
- The hearing also included testimony that Pat Cipollone asked Hutchinson to do what she could to make sure that the plan to go to the Capitol was junked, because the plan's result would be, “We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable."
- Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows wanted pardons.
- Days before, Hutchinson was warned by Meadows that January 6 might get "real bad."
- Whitewash House counsel, including Eric Herschmann and Pat Cipollone, both warned away from language in the January 6 speech which included terms like "fight for me" and references to Pence.
- 45 had to be urged to recite the dead-eye speech on January 7. His legal team wanted language about prosecuting rioters; he wanted to include language about pardoning them.
The Mafia Threats. The committee also presented a soupçon of evidence of witness intimidation. As an aside to Hutchinson's testimony, Liz Cheney presented examples of veiled threats that have been offered to witnesses, urging them to "do the right thing" because they are truly "loyal." The committee showed these two quotes, without disclosing who the witnesses are or who was the consigliere. I'm sure we'll hear more.
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| Witness testimony describing phone calls received prior to appearing before the committee |
Today's testimony is a patriot's testimony. But do you know what a treasonous 3-star general says to the question, "Do you believe in the peaceful transfer of power in the United States of America?" If you're convicted felon Mike Flynn, you reply with "I plead the Fifth."
Who is this Cassidy Hutchinson? Ms. Hutchinson worked in the office of Rep. Steve Scalice (R-La.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) before moving to the Whitewash House in 2019 and becoming chief aide to Chief of Staff Meadows in 2020. She set her sights on Washington while still an undergraduate student at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.
When asked how she personally felt during the events on January 6, she answered, "As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We're watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard in that moment to digest. ... I still struggle to work through the emotions of that."
Only 26 years old, she still has a bright future ahead of her. I hope she remains in the service of the United States. We need more Cassidy Hutchinsons.
Watch the entire hearing here. Please.
Click here for Part 7: Assembling the Mob
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