Trump wanted to join Capitol riot, tried to grab limo steering wheel, aide says
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
January 27, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
Trump wanted to join Capitol riot, tried to grab limo steering wheel, aide says

USA

Reuters
05 July, 2022, 04:50 pm
Last modified: 05 July, 2022, 04:57 pm

Related News

  • In debt-limit fight, Trump wants republicans to play a dangerous game of chicken
  • Trump, lawyers sanctioned nearly $1mn over Clinton lawsuit
  • Donald Trump says he never read book accusing him of rape
  • Trump says his campaign talking with Meta about possible return to Facebook
  • Trump Organization fined $1.6 mn for tax fraud

Trump wanted to join Capitol riot, tried to grab limo steering wheel, aide says

Reuters
05 July, 2022, 04:50 pm
Last modified: 05 July, 2022, 04:57 pm
A general view shows a House Select Committee hearing to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2022. Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
A general view shows a House Select Committee hearing to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2022. Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limousine on 6 January, 2021, when his security detail declined to take him to the US Capitol where his supporters were rioting, a former aide testified on Tuesday.

The then-president dismissed concerns that some supporters gathered for his fiery speech outside the White House that day carried AR-15-style rifles, instead asking security to stop screening attendees with metal-detecting magnetometers so the crowd would look larger, the aide testified.

"Take the effing mags away; they're not here to hurt me," Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a top aide to Trump's then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, quoted Trump as saying that morning.

Hutchinson, in testimony on the sixth day of House of Representatives hearings into the deadly 6 Jan. Capitol assault by Trump's followers, said the conversation was relayed to her by Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was Trump's deputy chief of staff for operations.

The New York Times and NBC, citing sources in the Secret Service, said the head of Trump's security detail, Robert Engel, and the limousine driver were prepared to testify under oath that Trump never lunged for the steering wheel. Engel was in the room when Ornato relayed the story, Hutchinson said.

The New York Times and CNN, citing unnamed sources, said Ornato also denied the story and was willing to testify.

Citing her conversation with Ornato, Hutchinson testified that Trump struggled with Secret Service agents who insisted he return to the White House rather than join supporters storming the Capitol where Congress was meeting to certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory over him in the presidential election.

Trump's supporters were roused by his false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud

"'I'm the effing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,'" Hutchinson quoted an enraged Trump as saying. She said Trump tried from the back seat to grab the steering wheel of the heavily armored presidential vehicle and lunged in anger at a Secret Service official.

Trump, a Republican, denied her account of his actions.

"Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is 'sick' and fraudulent," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media app.

In a statement, the Secret Service said it was cooperating fully with the committee and would continue to do so.

"We learned of the new information shared at today's hearing and plan on responding formally and on the record as soon as they can accommodate us," it added.

Hutchinson's lawyer Jody Hunt wrote on Twitter that she had "testified, under oath, and recounted what she was told. Those with knowledge of the episode also should testify under oath."

Dozens of courts, election officials and reviews by Trump's own administration rejected his fraud claims, including outlandish stories about an Italian security firm and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's tampering with US ballots.

Four people died the day of the attack, one fatally shot by police and the others of natural causes. More than 100 police officers were injured, and one died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide.

Witness tampering? 

At the end of about two hours of testimony, Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the nine-member House panel, presented possible evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

Cheney showed messages to unidentified witnesses advising them that an unidentified person would be watching their testimony closely and expecting loyalty.

Republican Mick Mulvaney, who served as Trump's chief of staff before Meadows, tweeted: "There is an old maxim: it's never the crime, it's always the cover-up. Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here."

Hutchinson told the committee that Meadows and Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani had sought pardons from Trump.

Giuliani told WSYR radio in Syracuse, New York, on Tuesday that he had not sought a pardon.

Tuesday's hastily called hearing marked the first time this month, in six hearings, that a former White House official appeared for live testimony.

Speaking in soft but assured tones, Hutchinson, 26, painted a picture of panicked White House officials bristling at the possibility of Trump's joining what was to become a violent mob pushing its way into the Capitol, hunting for his vice president, Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers who were certifying the victory of Biden over Trump.

"Every crime imaginable'

The White House officials' worries focused on the potential criminal charges Trump and others could face.

"We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable," Hutchinson said White House counselor Pat Cipollone told her if Trump were to go to the Capitol on 6 January .

"'We need to make sure that this doesn't happen, this would be a really terrible idea for us. We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day,'" Cipollone said, Hutchinson testified.

Hutchinson, who sat doors away from Trump's Oval Office, testified that days before the attack on the US Capitol, Meadows knew of the looming violence that could unfold.

"'Things might get real, real bad on 6 January,'" she quoted him as saying inside the White House on 2 Jan. with her boss.

She testified that Giuliani had said of 6 January: "'We're going to the Capitol, it's going to be great. The president's going to be there; he's going to look powerful.'"

At that point, she told the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans: "It was the first moment that I remembered feeling scared and nervous of what could happen on 6 January."

This month's hearings featured videotaped testimony from figures including Trump's oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his former attorney general Bill Barr. They and other witnesses testified that they did not believe Trump's false claims of widespread fraud and tried to dissuade him of them.

Before resigning, Barr told the Associated Press in an interview there was no evidence of fraud. That angered Trump so much that he threw his lunch at a White House wall, breaking a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall, according to Hutchinson.

She told the committee it was not unusual for Trump to throw food when he was angry: "There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere."

Top News / World+Biz

Capitol hill riot / Capitol Hill Attack / Donal Trump / Donald Trump

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Global central banks preaching on pay are enforcing squeeze too
    Global central banks preaching on pay are enforcing squeeze too
  • Infograph: TBS
    State banks spend 80% of their forex for govt imports in H1
  • Manufacturers feel the pinch as consumers tighten belt
    Manufacturers feel the pinch as consumers tighten belt

MOST VIEWED

  • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a visit to the Office of Director of National Intelligence in McLean, Virginia, July 18, 2022. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
    Blinken to travel to Israel, West Bank, urge end to violence
  • Somalia soldiers and policemen look on as Hassan Hanafi, a former media officer for the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, stands tied to a pole before his execution by shooting at close range on a field in General Kahiye Police Academy in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Taxta
    US military operation kills Islamic State leader in Somalia
  • A boy tries out a 12 gauge Smith and Wesson shotgun as people attend the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Houston, Texas, US May 28, 2022. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
    Democratic senators call for ban on marketing guns to kids
  • US President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland on 26 March 2022. Photo: Reuters
    Biden reelection bid not official, but fundraising to begin
  • FILE PHOTO: A Seattle police officer wears a "mourning band" for fallen officers over his badge, obscuring the badge number, as Seattle police guard the department headquarters downtown during a rally and march calling for a defunding of Seattle police, in Seattle, Washington, U.S. June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
    Five US police officers charged with beating Black man to death
  • Palestinians inspect damaged vehicles following an Israeli raid in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 26, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
    US urges de-escalation after Palestinians killed in Israeli operation

Related News

  • In debt-limit fight, Trump wants republicans to play a dangerous game of chicken
  • Trump, lawyers sanctioned nearly $1mn over Clinton lawsuit
  • Donald Trump says he never read book accusing him of rape
  • Trump says his campaign talking with Meta about possible return to Facebook
  • Trump Organization fined $1.6 mn for tax fraud

Features

Sketch:TBS

Why we need consumer education for consumer wellbeing

7h | Thoughts
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute. Illustration: TBS

Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response

8h | Thoughts
December-er shohor, taxi taken for airport and the Park Street bathed in lights. Photo: Jannatul Naym Pieal

Exploring Kolkata on foot, empowered by Google Maps

9h | Explorer
Island hopping in Bangladesh?

Island hopping in Bangladesh?

11h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

23h | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

12m | TBS Entertainment
PCB recalls cricketers from BPL ahead of PSL

PCB recalls cricketers from BPL ahead of PSL

1d | TBS SPORTS

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net