Former aide offers explosive Jan. 6 testimony
Mandel Ngan/AP
We ran the numbers: There are 3,924 news articles covering this topic. 66% (2,607) are left-leaning, 29% (1,120) are centrist, and 5% (197) are right-leaning.
On Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson, former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows provided a widely regarded most detailed testimony yet of the January 6th Committee’s hearings. Hutchinson described former President Donald Trump’s demands to be taken to the capitol on January 6th. Hutchinson also outlines the repeated warnings of the armed insurrection that Trump and others were aware of in the leadup to the breach.
A left-leaning article from the Washington Post details the extent to which Trump knew of weapons among the crowd and willingly allowed, if not encouraged, their path to the Capitol. The article quotes Hutchinson’s testimony of Trump claiming: “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 the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f---ing mags away” (“Mags” referring to magnetometers). The article goes on to describe others such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) who might have even predicted the event inside the White House. Furthermore, she testified that White House counsel Pat Cipollone even warned, prior to Jan 6th, that going to the Capitol could result in obstruction of justice and even inviting riot: “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen,” she said Cipollone told her. The article concludes: “Combined with his apparent contentment with what actually transpired — and failure to quell it immediately — it suggests it indeed might have been something Trump at the very least contemplated, if not desired. And at the very least, he willingly laid the groundwork.”
A center-leaning article from USA Today reports, “Former President Donald Trump wanted to follow his supporters into the House chamber on Jan. 6 and lunged at his head security detail when the driver of the presidential vehicletook him in the other direction, according to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.” The article outlines the events of the car ride as told by Hutchinson in which Trump lunged at his security detail upon hearing that he could not go to the Capitol; ”The hearing painted the picture of a president who erupted in anger as the reality of his exit from office set in – not just on Jan. 6 but in the weeks leading up to the insurrection.” However, such outbursts were not uncommon according to Hutchinson; the article concludes by quoting, "There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of either him throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere," Hutchinson said.
A right-leaning article from Fox News also outlines the testimony, providing Trump’s response: “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.’” The article, too, outlined the events of the car ride in which Trump attacked his guard, and the phone call from McCarthy in which it was clear that others knew of the plan to storm the Capitol. Beyond encouraging attendance even with weapons, Hutchinson overheard a conversation between Meadows and Cipollone, “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.”
From the center
Trump's rage over election led to dish-throwing, assaulting Secret Service agent, aide says
USA Today