Lou

This month is proving to be a big one for Democrats as the Biden administration continues to side with working families. Yesterday, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, proving that democracy is still working for America. While Democrats are working to make sure that everyone should pay their fair share, Republicans are working to defend billionaire tax cheats and spoil a better future for our country. In Massachusetts, the Inflation Reduction Act will make it more affordable for families to purchase energy-efficient appliances when they need to, make repairs around their homes, and save money on their utility bills each month. The Inflation Reduction Act will also expand clean energy employment, bringing an estimated $11.4 billion of investment in large-scale clean power generation and storage to Massachusetts between now and 2030. Finally, It has also been a great week for our Massachusetts seniors and those with disabilities as the FDA has taken the final step to make hearing aids available over the counter. Senator Elizabeth Warren led the fight for this new proposal which will assist 30 million Americans.  With your continued support, the Democrats will continue to make more historic actions.

The January 6 committee, in its final public hearing until the fall, presented damning new evidence Thursday highlighting then-President Donald Trump’s three-hour refusal to publicly condemn the unfolding insurrection at the US Capitol or to call off the violent mob.

The House Committee laid out the evidence of how, as a mob of his supporters assaulted the Capitol, former Trump sat in his dining room off the Oval Office, watching the violence on Fox News and choosing to do nothing to stop it even as the lives of law enforcement officers, members of Congress and his own vice president Pence were under threat by his supporters.

The committee provided a detailed account, narrated by sworn testimony from former staff and advisers, about a president who could not be moved to act until after it was clear that the riot (i.e. coup) had failed to stop the counting of electoral votes.

They detailed how every person in the White House – the top White House lawyer, senior advisors, aides, Pentagon officials and even his daughter – urged Trump to respond to the attack, but he willfully declined to do so.

You’er the Commander in chief. “You’ve got an assault going on the Capitol of the United States, and there’s nothing?” General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nations highest ranking military officer, told the panel. “No call? Nothing? Zero?”

In perhaps the most jarring revelation, the committee presented evidence that a call from a Pentagon official hoping to coordinate a response to the assault went unanswered because, according to one of Trump’s lawyers, “the president didn’t want anything done.”

Mike Pence, who as vice president held the ceremonial role of certifying the election results, was a specific target of both Trump and the insurgents on Jan. 6. The panel played Secret Service radio transmissions and testimony that showed in chilling detail how close the rioters came to Mike Pence, including an account of the Secret Service detail so rattled that they were contacting their family to say a final goodbye, fearing a confrontation that would lead to their death. Both pieces of testimony were provided by a former White House official whom the committee did not identify and whose voice was altered to protect his identity. Let me say that again. In the United States of America, a former White House official had to have his identity protected from the former president of the United States!

The committee also played dramatic radio recordings over a span of 10 minutes, from 2:14 to 2:24 PM from the Secret Service seeking a safe route to evacuate the Vice President. You could hear the stress in the voices of the typically stoic Secret Service members as they were only a few feet from the rioters separated by a handful of Capitol Police officers.

This was a closing argument of sorts in the case built against Trump, where the central assertion is that the former president was derelict in his duty for failing to do anything at all for 187 minutes to call off the assault carried out in his name. In fact, the assertion was that this was his plan and not incompetence. Trumps inaction during the riot was a glaring violation of his oath of office coming proceeding as a last gasp at the end of many unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

White House officials recounted how the president declined to take a few steps down the hallway to the White House briefing room to call off the violence, instead tweeting an attack on Mike Pence as he was fleeing for his life. “I think in that moment, for him to tweet out a message about Mike Pence, it was pouring gasoline on the fire and making it worse,” said Sarah Matthews, a White House press aide who resigned on Jan. 6 and was one of the two witnesses testifying in person. The other was Matthew Pottinger, a Marine Corp veteran and who was the deputy national security adviser and the highest ranking White House official to resign on Jan. 6. “That was the moment that I decided that I was going to resign, that that would be my last day at the White House,” Pottinger said referring to Trump’s tweet condemning the Vice President. “I simply didn’t want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the Capitol.”

I think that it is significant that Trump stayed in the dining room and not the Oval Office or the Situation Room where action is expected and multiple doors of entry. The dining room has only one door. During the 187 minutes, there were no calls on the White House call log or visits in the visitor log. When the White House photographer who photographs everything having to with the president was told by Trump that she was not needed the dining room on that day. Trump knew his actions were a violation of his oath.

While armed rioters were overrunning the Capitol and Trump was sitting in a dining room watching Fox News, he was, the committee contends, actively calling different US senators in an attempt to put off the electoral count vote, the basic purpose of the day. He also called Rudy Giuliani on at lest 2 occasions. If Congress didn’t certify the results that day, it might have been unconstitutional to confirm President Biden as the winner on Jan. 7.

While Trump was in the dining room watching television and using the phone, everyone he saw in person was telling him to call off his supporters as they descended on the Capitol. This included his legal counsel, children, his chief of staff, and his press secretary, not to mention calls from people like House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. So the idea that Trump was getting any other advice just isn’t true. He ignored all of them.

The committee showed two videos. The first was the video on January 6 where he ignored the written speech and spoke off the cuff reiterating that the election had been stolen but everyone should go home and that he loved them.

Trump: “I don’t want to say the election is over.” The second was on January 7 where he wouldn’t say the election is over. In neither video did he mention or say anything to the Capitol police or he family of the officer(s) who gave their lives defending the Capitol and likely our democrat on that day.

The committee was presenting evidence to show that not only was Trump not calling off the mob, but his public silence during those 187 minutes was also part of his plan to attempt a coup.

In an unusual aside as it did not seem pertinent to the hearing, the committee showed US Senator Josh Hawley R- Mo.

On Jan. 6, 2021, before a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Hawley., was photographed with his fist raised in solidarity with the pro-Trump protesters who had gathered outside the security gates. During the House select committee’s primetime hearing on Thursday night, the panel showed the picture of Sen Hawley with his fist raised followed by surveillance video of Hawley fleeing down the hall inside the Capitol as the rioters stormed the building. Laughter could be heard in the hearing room as the committee showed footage of Hawley running. He was also shown briskly walking down steps with other lawmakers as they were evacuated shortly after the joint session of Congress had been convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

US Rep Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 House select committee investigating the attack, delivered a forceful and sober final statement at the conclusion of a nearly three-hour hearing on Capitol Hill.

The patriotism of many Americans was turned into a “weapon” during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, by a former president who continues to prey on his supporters, Rep. Liz Cheney said Thursday night.

The Republican congresswoman from Wyoming addressed her comments to those who are skeptical of the committee’s work, which includes many voters in her own home state.

“The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies. It is, instead, a series of confessions by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials, people who worked for him for years, and his own family,” Cheney said.

Cheney made a distinction between Trump and his supporters, noting that many who voted for the former president would eagerly defend the country with their own lives. “Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened. They would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her,” she said.

But, she said, on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump “turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution.”

Trump is even now “preying on their patriotism” by continuing to insist he somehow won the 2020 election, despite no evidence to support his baseless claims, Cheney said.

The nine hearings so far, Cheney said, have shown that “Donald Trump’s plan to falsely claim victory in 2020, no matter what the facts actually were, was premeditated.”

The hearing Thursday showed evidence that Trump did nothing to stop the violence on Jan. 6, that former Vice President Mike Pence called in police and military units to shut down the riot and that Trump rejected calls from his family and aides to call off the mob until he knew the attack would be repelled by law enforcement.

Cheney closed her comments by asking Americans to consider the gravity of allowing Trump back into power again.

“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?” she said.

Cheney ended the hearing Thursday by making clear that the committee’s work is not done, and that there will be more hearings after Labor Day.

“Ronald Reagan’s great ally Margaret Thatcher said this: ‘Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it,’” she said. “Let me assure every one of you this: Our committee understands the gravity of this moment, the consequences for our nation. We have much work yet to do, and will see you all in September.”

Boston Globe and CNN – July 22, 2022

“When Donald Trump launched his post election assault on Democracy, he did not start with violence, he started with the Courts.”  Marc Elias Across the country, our right to vote is under assault by a hard right Republican Party. In Arizona, they are pushing a proof of citizenship law that violates the Voting Registration Act of 1993. Voter suppression laws are proffered in Georgia and North Carolina. In Louisiana it’s discriminatory mapping; next door in New Hampshire, it’s a photo ID requirement for same day registered voters. Even here in Massachusetts, the Republican Party has sued to challenge mail-in and early voting. This random sampling of the continued and virulent threats to our voting rights by Republicans highlights our urgent need to maintain our Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. And we need to organize and rally support here at home to keep our strong majorities in our legislature and not let the extreme right gain ground. We need to ensure that, once the primaries are over, we unite and support our chosen candidates for House, Senate and statewide offices, with a laser focus on electing a Democratic Governor. Roe is on the ballot, voting rights are on the ballot, and gun safety is on the ballot. Voting For Democrats has never been more urgent. As you visit your communities this summer, work with the committees and recruit for local boards that may not have candidates for next spring.  Our Blueprint organizational structure shouldn’t stop in November, it should be practiced year round.  Share this message far and wide: Register voters, canvass, phone bank and volunteer as often as you can because our Democracy hangs in the balance.  Thank you for what you do.

Sincerely,  Gus Bickford Chair, Massachusetts Democratic Party

The hearing Tuesday was the seventh for the Jan. 6 committee. Over the past month, the panel has created a narrative of a defeated Trump “detached from reality,” clinging to false claims of voter fraud and working feverishly to reverse his election defeat. It all culminated with the attack on the Capitol.

Unwilling to believe there was no election fraud, Donald Trump turned to a bunch of wild-eyed conspiracy theorists and amoral opportunists. Sidney Powell, General Flynn and Rudy Guiliani made their way under the official White House radar to pitch Trump on the idea of appointing Powell as a special counsel to probe supposed election fraud and having the federal government seize voting machines from various states, apparently in pursuit of the bizarre notion that those machines had somehow been used to steal the election for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Tuesday’s session revealed details of an “unhinged” late night meeting at the White House with Donald Trump’s outside lawyers in a last-ditch effort to pursue his false claims of voter fraud before the defeated president summoned a mob to the U.S. Capitol.

It was a White House meeting unlike anything you’d ever imagine in our country. Or at least in any sane nation.

The House panel on Jan. 6 took us inside a meeting-cum-clash between objective reality and evidence-free autocratic idiocy, with Sidney Powell the very personification of the latter, aided and abetted by fanatical Michael Flynn, falsehood-furthering Rudy Giuliani and Patrick Byrne, the head of the online retail company Overstock.. Cipollone and other White House officials scrambled to intervene in the late-night meeting. It erupted in shouting and screaming, another aide testified.

The panel featured new video testimony from Pat Cipollone, Trump’s former White House counsel, recalling the explosive meeting at the White House when Trump’s outside legal team brought a draft executive order to seize states’ voting machines — a “terrible idea,” he said. “That’s not how we do things in the United States,” Cipollone testified. Another aide called the meeting “unhinged.”

Flynn and Powell recommended appointing Powell as a Special Counsel to investigate vote fraud.

It erupted in shouting and screaming, another aide testified. “Where is the evidence?” Cipollone demanded of the false claims of voter fraud. Pat Cipollone repeatedly challenged Powell for evidence of widespread election fraud — and that she had none. Of course she didn’t. 

“What they were proposing, I thought, was nuts,” testified another White House official, Eric Herschmann. But Trump was intrigued and essentially told his White House lawyers that at least Powell and outside allies were trying to do something. “You guys are not tough enough,” Giuliani said and then added a vulgar insult in video testimony about the White House attorneys.

As night turned to morning, Trump tweeted the call for supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6, when Congress would be tallying the Electoral College results. “Be there. Will be wild,” Trump wrote.

“This tweet served as a call to action — and in some cases a call to arms.” said one panel member, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. Immediately, the extremists reacted. The committee then detailed the way various right-wing conspiracy theorists and extremists, including Alex Jones of InfoWars notoriety and Sandy Hook denialism, called on their followers to come to Washington. The responses by far-right activists, agitators, and tweeters made clear they saw Trump’s tweet as a call to armed conflict. In vulgar and often racist language the messages beaming across the far-right forums planned for the big day that they said Trump was asking for in Washington. It would be a “red wedding,” said one, a reference to mass killing. “Bring handcuffs.”

Several members of the U.S. Capitol Police who fought the mob that day sat stone-faced in the front row of the committee room.

“The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., in opening remarks.

At the witness table to testify in person was Jason Van Tatenhove, an ally of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. Another witness was Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building. He has said that on Jan. 2, 2021, he posted an image stating that Trump was “calling on us to come back to Washington on January 6th for a big protest.”

Ayres, who pleaded guilty to charges connected to the insurrection, said he never intended on marching to the Capitol, but that Trump got “everyone” riled up and urged them to march. He testified that he had only planned on attending the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse.

Van Tatenhove testified that Stuart Rhodes, who founded the far-right group and called on Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, believed if Trump did so that it would enable the Oath Keepers to “move forward” with the goals and agenda pushed by Rhodes. ”I think we need to quit mincing words,” Van Tatenhove said. “What it was gonna be is an armed revolution. I mean, people died that day. … This could have been the spark that started a new Civil War.” Van Tatenhove told Raskin that he thought “we’ve gotten exceedingly lucky that more bloodshed did not happen,” on Jan. 6, citing the longstanding “potential” of violence among Oath Keepers and similar militia groups.

Then-President Trump’s call for his supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was planned in advance, and he intended to go with them, evidence presented at Tuesday’s congressional hearing on the insurrection showed.

“He stoked their anger. He called for them to the fight for him. He directed them to the U.S. Capitol. He told them he would join them. And his supporters believed him, and many headed towards the Capitol,” said House Select Committee member Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.). “As a result, people died. People were injured. Many of his supporters lives have never been the same.” 

A draft tweet obtained by the Jan. 6 House select committee showed that prior to the insurrection, Trump had written: “I will be making a Big Speech at 10 AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the steal!!”  Trump never sent the tweet.

The committee also presented texts among Trump’s supporters in the days leading up to the insurrection that suggested that Trump’s call for his supporters to march on the Capitol was premeditated. A text from far-right activist Ali Alexander at 7:19 a.m. Jan. 5 read: “Tomorrow: Ellipse then US Capitol. Trump is supposed to order us to Capitol at end of his speech but we will see.”

Murphy explained that in the day prior to Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, the president and his aides and speechwriters fought over the content of the speech. “That speech devolved into a call to action to a call to fight,” she said, pointing to a speech revision at 5:05 p.m. on Jan. 5 that added: “All of us are here today, do not want to see our election victory stolen by beholden radical left Democrats, our country has had enough we will not take it anymore. Together, we will stop the steal.” 

Trump’s edits continued into the morning of Jan. 6. When he finally delivered the speech, he added lines calling for his supporters to fight, and for Vice President Mike Pence to “be strong” in order to “take back our country.”

The committee displayed a text exchange from Jan. 4 between White House Ellipse rally organizer Kylie Kremer and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in which the pair discussed secret plans to have Trump call for protesters to march to a second location, either the Supreme Court or Capitol on Jan. 6. Kremer urges Lindell to keep the plans secret, since they did not have permits for the march.

Organizers of the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse have continually denied culpability for the Capitol violence, saying that the two were unconnected and that Trump’s call to have people march on the Capitol was unprompted and unscripted. The revelations Tuesday demonstrate this line has always been a lie, as multiple members of Trump’s team — as well as organizers of the White House rally —  had full knowledge he’d direct people to the Capitol.

The committee is probing whether the extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon adherents who had rallied for Trump before, coordinated with White House allies for Jan. 6. The Oath Keepers have denied there was any plan to storm the Capitol.

Attacking the Capitol was the plan from the start (maybe from much earlier than January 4). Trump and his staff kept the planned March quiet so not to alert the National Park Service and others allowing them time to prepare. The Proud Boys went to the Capitol early to find ports of entry and weak spots. The Oath Keepers provided the military muscle but there was not enough of them to breach the Capitol. Trump riles up the base and sent them to the Capitol to provide the needed numbers to breach the Capitol. It was a planned coup attempt, in my view.

The committee began the second half of the hearing making connections between Trump allies Flynn and Roger Stone and the extremist groups who were preparing to come to Washington. It showed showing a picture of Rhodes, the Oath Keeper leader, walking with Flynn, the former national security aide to Trump, outside the Capitol at some point.

This was the only hearing this week, as new details emerge. An expected prime-time hearing Thursday has been shelved for now.

In her opening remarks at Tuesday’s January 6 committee hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney had a blunt message: Donald Trump doesn’t get to play the unwitting dupe when it comes to his role in the run-up to and riot at the US Capitol. “President Trump is a 76-year-old man,” Cheney said at one point. “He is not an impressionable child.” “Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind,” the Wyoming Republican said at another moment.

In her closing remarks, she abruptly raised the question of witness tampering, revealing Tuesday that Donald Trump had attempted to contact a person who was talking to the panel about its investigation of the former president and the 2021 attack on the Capitol. “We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” said Rep. Liz Cheney. She said the committee had notified the Justice Department.

h eyewitness accounts from the former president’s inner circle, that Trump was told “over and over,” as Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said, that he had lost the election and his claims of voter fraud were just not true. Nevertheless, Trump summoned his supporters to Washington and then sent them to the Capitol in what panel Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has called an “attempted coup.”

Shannon Larson of the Globe staff contributed to this report

The House select committee reconvened Tuesday for a hastily scheduled hearing, featuring blockbuster testimony from Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

Hutchinson has cooperated extensively with the investigation, having sat for four closed-door depositions. She revealed how then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle were warned about the potential for violence on January 6, and how Trump wanted to join the rioters at the US Capitol.

The testimony bolstered the narrative that the committee has been driving toward over the last few weeks: That Trump incited and supported the insurrection as part of a desperate power grab to steal a second term, and that many of his top advisers thought his schemes were illegal.

Trump and his chief of staff were warned about violence — including armed attendees of rally

Hutchinson really moved the ball forward in terms of establishing that Trump was personally aware of the potential for violence, yet forged ahead on January 6 with his attempts to rile up his supporters to interfere with the joint session of Congress to certify President Joe Biden’s victory.

She said Trump was told that morning that weapons were being confiscated from some of his supporters who came for his rally. Later, when Trump and his team were at the Ellipse — the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House. Trump was irate over the small side of the crowd. He was told that they were not entering because they didn’t want to go through the metal detectors and have their weapons confiscated. Before his speech, Trump barked out orders to his staffers to “take the mags away” — referring to the metal detectors — because the people in the crowd, “they’re not here to hurt me.”

Trump apparently wanted the mags to be taken down so his supporters could keep their weapons as they marched on the US Capitol.

Trump also said, “I don’t f**king care that they have weapons,” according to Hutchinson. This is particularly shocking, because Trump then encouraged the same crowd to march to the Capitol while lawmakers were affirming Biden’s win. (Hundreds of Trump’s diehard supporters soon stormed the Capitol, many carrying knives, bear spray, metal poles, tasers and a few guns.)

When Hutchinson told her boss, Meadows, about early reports of weapons getting confiscated, Meadows didn’t even look up from his phone, according to Hutchinson. Two days earlier, he told her that “things might get real, real, bad on January 6.”

“The potential for violence was learned or known before the onset of the violence, early enough for President Trump to have taken steps to prevent it,” said Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s GOP vice chair. She added that Trump could have urged his supporters not to march to the Capitol, or condemned the violence more quickly, but didn’t, because he “had something else in mind.”

Previous to the Jan 6 Committee hearings, the thought was that this was a protest that got out of hand. The evidence shows that this was not the case. Trumps plan was to unleash armed people on the Capitol to stop the transfer of power.

The question is, Why was Trump so adamant about going to the Capitol and what was he going to do once he got there? Was he going to enter with the armed mob behind him demanding that he be confirmed as President?

Trump intended to go the Capitol and pushed to do so until the last minute

The select committee effectively proved by featuring a mix of damning witness testimony and White House records that show Trump intended to join his supporters at the Capitol and was pushing to do so just minutes before the violence began to escalate.

It was previously known that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but Hutchinson’s testimony established for the first time that people around Trump had advance knowledge of this plan.

The reality of Trump’s intentions became clear to national security officials in real time as they learned the Secret Service was scrambling to find a way for the former President to travel to the Capitol while he was on stage urging his followers to march, according to National Security Council chat logs from that day that were revealed for the first time during Tuesday’s hearing. 

The NSC chat logs provide a minute-by-minute accounting of how the situation evolved from the perspective of top White House national security officials on January 6 and, along with witness testimony delivered on Tuesday, contradict an account by Meadows in his book where he says Trump never intended to march to the Capitol. 

“MOGUL’s going to the Capital … they are clearing a route now,” a message sent to the chat log at 12:29 p.m. ET on January 6 reads — referring to the former President’s secret service code name.  “MilAide has confirmed that he wants to walk,” a 12:32 p.m. message reads. “They are begging him to reconsider.” “So this is happening,” a message sent at 12:47 p.m. states. 

Hutchinson also testified that some in Trump’s orbit had made clear days before January 6 that Trump wanted to travel to the US Capitol.

She told the committee Tuesday that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told her on January 2 — four days before the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters — that “we’re going to the Capitol” on January 6, and that Trump himself was also planning to be there.

Trump reached for steering wheel

Hutchinson testified Tuesday that she heard a secondhand account of how Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol on January 6 he lunged to the front of his presidential limo and tried to turn the wheel. 

Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff, told Hutchinson that Robert Engel, who was the Secret Service agent in charge on January 6 that repeatedly told Trump on their way back to the White House after Trump’s Ellipse speech that it wasn’t safe to go to the Capitol. 

According to Hutchinson, Ornato recounted Trump screaming, “I’m the f**king President. Take me up to the Capitol now.” 

Trump then “reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel,” Hutchinson remembered learning. She added that, according to Ornato, Trump used his other hand “lunge” at Engel up near his clavicle.. 

Engel and Ornato have both testified to the committee behind closed doors, but their statements were not used in the hearing Tuesday.

This anecdote came up as the committee questioned Hutchinson about Trump’s state of mind after losing the election. Hutchinson recounted a separate Trump tantrum after then-Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press in December 2020 there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. “I remember hearing noise coming from down the hallway,” Hutchinson began. She saw the President’s valet in the dining room, changing the tablecloth, ketchup dripping down the wall, and a porcelain plate shattered on the floor. “The President was extremely angry at the attorney general’s … interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall,” Hutchinson said. “I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall.”

Cipollone warned: ‘People are going to die and the blood’s gonna be on your f**king hands’

Trump defended the rioters chanting for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, according to Hutchinson.

Hutchinson relayed a conversation she observed between White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Meadows after they discussed with Trump the chants to inflict violence on Pence.

“I remember Pat saying something to the effect of ‘Mark, we need to do something more. Meadows said that Trump was in the dining room and didn’t want to do anything. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be f**king hung,'” Hutchinson recalled. Meadows replied, “You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” according to Hutchinson.

Cipollone responded, “This is f**king crazy. We need to be doing something more.”

Hutchinson testified that Cipollone had previously rushed into Meadows’ office after rioters breached the Capitol and told Meadows what had happened, and said they needed to go meet with Trump. 

“Mark, something needs to be done, or people are going to die and the blood’s gonna be on your f**king hands,” Cipollone told Meadows, according to Hutchinson. “This is getting out of control.”

Trump delivered a speech on January 7, 2021, finally acknowledging that Biden would be inaugurated in part because there was a “large concern” by the White House that Pence and the Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from power, according to Cassidy’s testimony. While Trump gave the speech effectively conceding the election, he wanted to remove calls for “prosecuting the rioters or calling them violent” from early drafts of his January 7 speech, according to Hutchinson, but wanted to float pardons to his supporters. “He didn’t want that in there,” Hutchinson said. “He wanted to put in that he wanted to potentially pardon them.” “He didn’t think that they did anything wrong,” said Hutchinson, referring to the pro-Trump rioters. “The people who did something wrong that day-or-the person who did something wrong that day was Mike Pence, by not standing with him.”

Cassidy Hutchinson told the House Select committee Tuesday that her one-time boss, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, indicated he was interested in receiving a presidential pardon related to Jan. 6.  She also told the panel that Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former attorney, also expressed similar interest in a pardon. 

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. 

Most taken from CNN report June 27 – opinions and questions are part of CNN article.