A Liberal in Trumpistan: January 6 Committee Hearing #6: Ketchup on the Wall

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

January 6 Committee Hearing #6: Ketchup on the Wall

Ketchup on the Wall

The sixth hearing was a surprise on several levels. First, there was only a single witness called to testify live. That witness was Cassidy Hutchinson, 26, former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Second, the hearing was scheduled suddenly – as if some emergency had occurred.

As we learned in the end, an emergency had. Hutchinson was a target of intensifying witness intimidation.

For those not watching, particularly Trump’s diehard fans who don’t want to learn bitter truths, this January 6 Committee has done a masterful job of laying out the evidence. For the sixth hearing, we learned that Ms. Hutchinson, a striking young woman, in a white blazer, had been stationed just down the hall from the Oval Office itself. The Committee wanted it to be clear: She was at the locus of power inside the White House. At one point, Hutchinson laughed after a digital map was displayed on the massive screen behind the nine lawmakers who make up the panel. “It’s a lot smaller than it looks,” she said of her office.

Cassidy Hutchinson swears to tell the truth.

Hutchinson, like many of the other two-dozen main witnesses called so far, had been a dependable member of the Trump administration from the start. Following Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, however, she saw a president spiraling out of control. On the evening of January 2, 2021, she talked briefly with Rudy Giuliani (speaking of spiraling out of control). Trump, he said, planned to go to the Capitol on January 6, after he gave his “Stop the Steal” rally speech. There, he hoped to speak again. He might even appear on the floor of the House of Representatives or the Senate. Rudy wasn’t sure; but said the president would appear “very powerful,” if he did.

Hutchinson told committee members that was the first time she was “scared.” She brought those fears up in conversation with Meadows soon after. “Cass,” he replied, “I don’t know, things might get real, real bad on January 6.”

Hutchinson testified that she had also talked to John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, and expressed her concern. He, too, was troubled. He told her that he wanted no part of the post-election machinations in the White House. January 6, he said, could be “dangerous to the president’s legacy,” and events might spiral out of control. The plan that was shaping up, pushed by the president’s most rabid supporters, was “potentially dangerous for our democracy.”

The first major shock of the day came when Hutchinson outlined the clear warnings that the White House had received in the days leading up to the January 6 riot. There were plans afoot, among radical right-wing groups, to occupy multiple buildings in Washington D.C. On January 4, there was a warning that “Congress itself is a target.” Robert O’Brien, the president’s National Security Advisor, called Hutchinson and asked her to relay such warnings to Meadows. She asked if he could speak to Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent on loan, then in charge of security protocols at the White House, and he did. Ornato was informed that there had been multiple, credible threats of violence. On the evening of January 5, with angry Trump supporters gathering, there were reports of armed protesters – in a city where guns are almost completely banned.

The president himself had said that January 6 would be “wild.” By 9:00 a.m. it was clear that for once, a Trump prediction was correct. Law enforcement reported seeing a protester armed with a pitchfork, another with a Glock-style pistol on his right hip mixed in with the crowd. There was a man with a long gun in a tree near the Washington Monument, and a group of three walking down the street with an AR-15. (Hutchinson’s wording was unclear, and I couldn’t be sure she meant there were three persons, and one had an AR-15, or all three in the group did.) A report came in that at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Independence Avenue, there were people dressed for combat, complete with ballistic helmets and body armor.

Armed protesters were seen close to the White House.

Frantic police radio calls from that morning were played, backing Hutchinson’s testimony up. She testified further that by 10 a.m. she knew protesters had knives, pistols, rifles, and all kinds of bear and pepper spray. She stepped into Meadows’ office and expressed her growing distress. He was seated on a couch, scrolling through his phone. “I remember distinctly him not looking up,” she said. Ornato called to warn Hutchinson that law enforcement authorities were having trouble “stacking bodies.” They didn’t have enough manpower, they feared, to control a growing crowd. She went again to see Meadows – but was struck again by his “lack of reaction.”

Meanwhile, Eric Herschmann, a White House lawyer, had been warning the president’s speech writers to drop criticism of Vice President Mike Pence from Trump’s planned speech. To include such incendiary language, would be “foolish,” he said. Yet, the critical lines remained in the speech.

White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone had already expressed his concern about the president’s plan to go to the Capitol after his speech. Now, on the morning of January 6, with signs of danger intensifying, he warned Hutchinson, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable” if the president marched to Capitol Hill, including “inciting a riot.”

In months since, Mark Meadows has written a book about his time in the Trump White House. He had said that the president had never planned to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6. When he called on the crowd to do so, and said he’d lead them there, Meadows said he was speaking “metaphorically,” which would not leave anyone involved open to a charge of a crime. Now Hutchinson was making clear. Trump had planned to go all along. Nick Luna and Max Miller, two other witnesses who testified behind closed doors, were shown on video, backing that story up.

“They aren’t here to hurt me.”

Hutchinson, Meadows, the adult Trump children, and the president, soon headed for the Ellipse, where the big stage was set up. Other speakers had been warming up the crowd. But the president was angry. The crowd – which he had said would number in the millions – was too small. It didn’t look good on TV. Secret Service agents, D.C. Metropolitan Police, and others were reporting having trouble passing thousands through metal detectors surrounding the stage. Many of those entering the venue were carrying large military-style backpacks, which took longer to search.

Hundreds were simply stacking gear outside the fence – which worried law enforcement in itself. Trump was warned. Many supporters had come to D.C. armed. He was furious because the crowd might look too small. “I don’t f---ing care,” Hutchinson heard him say, “if they have weapons. They aren’t here to hurt me.” He demanded agents “take the f---ing mags [magnetometers] away.”

That request was denied.

Hutchinson was backstage when President Trump strode to the podium and began to speak. She could not hear everything he was saying. Then she got an angry call from House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy. “You lied,” he exclaimed. She had assured him Trump had no plans to march to the Capitol – but now he had just said he would. Hutchinson said she had been told he would not. When Trump finished, however, Secret Service agents told him that it would not be safe. Inside “the Beast,” as the president’s heavily-armored limousine is known, an angry scene allegedly played out. Hutchinson said that she was told Trump was furious. “I’m the f---ing president,” he shouted. “Take me to the Capitol.” When Secret Service agents refused, she was told, Trump lunged at the driver and tried to grab the steering wheel. Then he grabbed at the throat of Robert Engel, another agent, who tried to force him to sit back in his seat.

A “shattered porcelain plate.”

Hutchinson was asked if she had ever seen the president explode before. She said that she was called to the presidential dining room on December 1, shortly after Attorney General Bill Barr told Trump that there was no evidence of serious voter fraud in the recent election. She saw ketchup dripping from a wall and “a shattered porcelain plate.” The valet indicated that Mr. Trump “had thrown his lunch against the wall.” She picked up a towel and started wiping the ketchup off.

“Was this the only instance you are aware of where the president threw dishes,” Rep. Liz Cheney asked? No, she replied. Trump had been known to throw dishes before, and would sometimes rip off tablecloths, sending everything on the table flying.

She testified further that on the evening of January 5, Meadows had asked her to arrange for him to travel to the Willard Hotel, where a “war room” had been set up by some of the Trump diehards to plan for events the next day. She told him she did not think it was “a smart idea” for him to go. “I didn’t think it was appropriate,” she told the panel. As far as she knew, Meadows did not go to the Willard that night.

What kind of people were present in the “war room” that evening – and the next day? The panel laid out some of what they had learned. Those in attendance include Roger Stone, the seven-time felon. John Eastman, the mastermind of the plot to derail the counting of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, was there. So was Gen. Michael T. Flynn, one of several Trump advisors who had been advocating for him to declare martial law and rerun elections in battleground states where he lost.

A clip of Flynn’s testimony (under threat of subpoena for criminal contempt), via video, was shown on the big screen. “Was the January 6 violence justified?” investigators asked. His lawyer and Flynn asked for a moment to confer. For 96 seconds the screen went blank. When the two men reappeared, Gen. Flynn asked for clarification. The investigator broke the question down.

Was the violence justified “morally?”

Flynn replied, “Fifth.” That is, he was taking the Fifth Amendment.

Was the violence justified “politically?”

“Fifth,” Flynn replied.

The investigator tried an even more direct approach. “Do you believe in the peaceful transition of power” he asked.

The general replied, staggeringly, “Fifth.”

“Blood will be on your f---ing hands.”

Hutchinson testified that by 2:05 p.m. on January 6, as the crowd turned into a mob, and began surrounding the Capitol Building, that she had a feeling of “watching a bad car wreck” play out. Back at the White House, where the president was still fuming, she saw Mr. Cipollone come “barreling down the hallway.” She followed him into Mr. Meadows’ office, and listened as Cipollone insisted they had to go to the president and tell him to call his supporters off. Meadows told Cipollone that the president didn’t want to do anything. “People are going to get killed,” Cipollone told Meadows, “and the blood will be on your f---ing hands.” (Hutchinson never used the f-word in her testimony all day.) When Cipollone added that some in the mob were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” the White House chief of staff seemed to wash his hands. Trump, he replied, “thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong.”

“This is f---ing crazy,” Cipollone replied.

If you didn’t watch the hearing, or you only heard Hutchinson’s testimony filtered through the lens of right wing news, you might have thought Cassidy Hutchinson had worked for “Fake News” CNN for four years. In fact, she testified, for almost four years she had always supported the president, had “always worked to show what good things he had done for the country.”

Now, when Trump’s infamous tweet came at 2:24 p.m., she could stand no more. That tweet read: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”

“As an American,” she now told the panel, “I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was un-American” and “it was a lie.”

The election had not been stolen – as the two dozen witnesses who had already testified had made abundantly clear.

A brief clip of Matthew Pottinger, a former Marine, and at that time Deputy National Security Advisor, was shown on the screen. He too considered the 2:24 p.m. tweet a breaking point. At that moment, he testified, he decided he would resign.

Even the Trump apologists at Fox News were growing alarmed, as rioters began smashing their way inside. At 2:32 Laura Ingraham messaged Meadows, insisting, “Mark, the president needs to tell the people in the Capitol to go home.”

At 2:53, Don Jr. contacted Meadows, and said his father had to “condemn this shit. ASAP.”

A clip of Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, was shown on the screen next. It was a video warning he sent to the president around that same time. “You’re the only person who can call this off…This is bigger than you, it’s bigger than any member of Congress, it’s about the United States of America, which is more important than any politician. Call it off. It’s over,” he said.

But Trump did not act. Meadows remained paralyzed, at best. The seventh hearing may well prove that Trump expected and planned for the chaos – that he thought violence would justify further extreme action. For example: He might have cover to declare martial law and thwart the final work of Congress that way.

Witness tampering – again – a Trump go-to move.

Much remains to be seen; but Hutchinson closed her testimony with a final bombshell of her own. She said that President Trump had considered pardoning everyone involved in the Jan. 6 attack. She said Rudy Giuliani had asked about a pardon himself. She said her own boss, Mark Meadows, also inquired.

Rep. Liz Cheney spoke next. Up on the big screen, two quotes appeared, both clearly attempts at witness intimidation.

What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I'm on the team, I'm doing the right thing, I'm protecting who I need to protect, you know, I'll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceed through my depositions and interviews with the committee.

[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he's thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.

The first quote was from Hutchinson, from previous testimony, given on video, under oath. She was in position to do real damage to the former president if she told the truth and she was being pressured to cover up what she knew.

And who was that “person,” unnamed?

It would seem it was none other than Donald J. Trump.

POSTSCRIPT: The story of Trump lunging at Secret Service agents in the limousine on January 6 is in some dispute. And, for once, Trump apologists had something from the hearings they could latch onto to in an absurd effort to discredit everything else that had been said.

Trump, of course, showed his usual lack of class, and demonstrated once again, that he believes he can convince his cult members that everyone who has ever criticized him or ever will is lying and part of the “Fake News.” In a series of attacks, he has belittled Hutchinson, calling her “this girl.” He has said he “hardly knows” who she was, and in an interview with Newsmax (where no one ever dares criticize Trump) he wondered aloud, “Is something wrong with her?” Is this “girl” perhaps “crazy?”

When the Secret Service put out a statement saying that the agency had been cooperating fully with the investigation, and there were reports that agents in “the Beast” would deny the story about what occurred, Trump acted as if every syllable that had come from Cassidy Hutchinson’s lips had been debunked.

“These are great people,” Trump said of the Secret Service. “I think they were very embarrassed by it because it makes them sound terrible.”

“It was very nice that they came to my defense,” Trump said. “I thought it was incredible, actually, because, you know, some whack job can say this stuff and get away with it.”

But Hutchinson had made clear – she had not been witness to that incident – whereas she had been witness to other damning events.

At Newsmax, of course, no one bothered to ask Trump, about all the other evidence Hutchinson had – or the other evidence provided by the 26 other main witnesses so far. For your edification, we provide the list of main witnesses called to testify publicly so far:

All are Republicans. Many worked for President Trump:

1. Former Attorney General Bill Barr

2. Rusty Bowers, Arizona Speaker of the House

3. Alex Cannon, former Trump campaign lawyer

4. Jeffrey Clark (his testimony was shown via video, and he was shown repeatedly pleading the Fifth)

5. Pat Cipollone, former White House Chief Counsel (limited testimony, Trump had invoked executive privilege)

6. Laura Cox, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party

7. Brian Cutler, Pennsylvania House Majority Leader

8. Dr. John Eastman, linchpin to the plan to keep Trump in office (reluctant witness, repeatedly plead the Fifth)

9. Benjamin Ginsberg, Republican election strategist

10. Eric Herschmann, White House lawyer

11. Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows