US President Donald Trump on stage before his supporters storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington (AFP / Brendan Smialowski)
Donald Trump knew some of his supporters were armed when he called on them to march on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and then sought to get behind the wheel of a car to join them, according to damning testimony delivered to Congress on Tuesday.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former collaborator of the White House, revealed before a parliamentary committee the specific actions of the former president on this day when American democracy trembled.
According to this young woman, Donald Trump tried to take the wheel of the presidential car from a Secret Service policeman to mingle with his supporters, who were marching towards Congress in an attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential.
– “Take me to the Capitol” –
“I’m the fucking president, get me to the Capitol right now,” he allegedly said, trying to grab the cop by the collar, according to remarks reported to Cassidy Hutchinson by the president’s deputy chief of staff.
“Sir, you have to take your hand off the wheel, we’re going” to the White House, the policeman would have replied.
This young woman, who worked just a few steps from the Oval Office, also gave disturbing details about what the American executive knew of the violence that was preparing ahead of “January 6”.
Including a conversation she allegedly had with Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, four days before the attack on the US Congress. “It could get really, really bad on January 6,” he said.
Cassidy Hutchinson, assistant to Donald Trump’s former right-hand man, during a hearing before Congress on June 28, 2022 in Washington (AFP / Stefani Reynolds)
“That evening, I remember feeling fear and dread for the first time about what could happen on January 6, 2021,” she said in testimony that could force Mark Meadows to come out of silence to deliver his version of the facts.
US media later reported that the Secret Service officers involved may be willing to testify and deny his account. Asked by AFP, the Secret Service did not respond.
– “To hurt” –
On this cold day in January, thousands of supporters of Donald Trump gathered in Washington to denounce the result of the election, lost by the Republican billionaire.
Map of the US capital Washington locating the Capitol, invaded by supporters of Donald Trump in January 2021 (AFP / )
The parliamentary committee revealed on Tuesday that several people within this human tide were heavily armed, information transmitted at the time to Donald Trump.
“I don’t give a damn if they’re armed, they’re not here to hurt me,” the president reportedly replied minutes before inviting them to “walk to the Capitol,” said Ms. Hutchinson, who distanced himself from the Trump nebula, before the parliamentary commission of inquiry.
For nearly a year, this commission has heard more than 1,000 witnesses, including two children of the former president, and peeled 140,000 documents to shed light on the precise maneuvers of Donald Trump before, during and after this event which caused a global shock wave.
– Ketchup on the walls –
These nine elected officials – seven Democrats and two Republicans rejected by their party – accuse Donald Trump and his entourage of being at the heart of an “attempted coup”.
Supporters of Donald Trump storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington (AFP / Olivier DOULIERY)
Supporting videos and testimonials, they detailed throughout the month of June the pressure exerted from all sides by the billionaire to stay in power, until the assault on the Capitol by his supporters.
The episode of the presidential limousine was not the only outburst of violence by Donald Trump during the period when he tried to overturn the result of the election, according to testimony on Tuesday.
Cassidy Hutchinson also mentioned the day of December 1, 2020, when the American Minister of Justice Bill Barr had declared in an interview that he had not found “fraud” sufficient to invalidate the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election. The billionaire then allegedly threw a porcelain plate on the floor and threw ketchup on a wall in the White House, she said.
Supporters of US President Donald Trump inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington (AFP / Saul LOEB)
Donald Trump, who openly flirts with the idea of running for president in 2024, vehemently denounced all of these revelations.
“It’s twisted and wrong, just like all of the commission’s work,” he lambasted in a series of posts on his Truth Social social network.
A sign of the deep political divide that divides America, his party, which Donald Trump still controls with an iron fist, has already promised to bury the conclusions of this commission if he were to take control. of the House of Representatives during the mid-term legislative elections in November.