Ex-Trump aide claims he tried to grab the wheel when his driver wouldn’t take him to Capitol riots

Danny Jones

Her extraordinary testimony sheds light on the former president’s apparent fury on January 6, 2021

A former aide to Donald Trump has claimed that the ex-45th President attempted to grab the wheel of the presidential car and lunged at his driver when he wouldn’t take him to Capitol Hill on the day of the now-infamous riots.

Ex-adviser Cassidy Hutchinson gave her surprise testimony detailing the events that transpired after protestors marched on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, following the election defeat to Joe Biden, which Trump and his supporters believe was rigged.

As part of her explosive witness statement in the sixth hearing held by the House Select Committee investigating the attack, Hutchinson revealed that an “irate” Donald Trump apparently grabbed the steering wheel of his armoured Cadillac limousine, ‘The Beast’, after the Secret Service agent driving told him he wouldn’t take him to Capitol Hill.

Moreover, when the agent – identified as Bobby Engel – reiterated he would not be taken to the US Capitol, Trump allegedly reached out to grab at his clavicle (collarbone and neck area), shouting “I’m the f***ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now.” before he was ultimately restrained.

Trump has naturally denied all of these suggestions, labelling Hutchinson a “total phony”, a “bulls**t artist” and “bad news”. He also went on to add that he “hardly” knew her aside from hearing supposedly “very negative things about her”, despite Ms Hutchinson being not only an aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows but a special assistant to Trump for some time.

His team claims that he testimony is questionable due to the fact she was not present in the car at the time of the allegations, however, she claims her close proximity to Meadows and his deputy chief of staff, Tony Ornato, meant she often had information about the president relayed to her.

“Tony proceeded to tell me that when the president got in the ‘Beast’ he was under the impression from Mr Meadows that the off-the-record movement to the Capitol was still possible and likely to happen” she said.

“So as the President had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought they were going up to the Capitol and when Bobby relayed to him we’re not, we don’t have the assets to do it, it’s not secure, we’re going back to the West Wing, the President had a very strong, very angry response to that.”

Elsewhere in her testimony, Hutchinson claimed that the former president demanded the Secret Service to take down the checkpoints and magnetometers (metal detectors) to let his supporters inside Capitol with their weapons as he intended to go there to deliver a speech.

She recounted him saying, “I don’t effing care that they have weapons. They aren’t here to hurt me. Take those effing mags away,”, adding that he was “fucking furious” that more protestors weren’t let in and that just a select few would look bad on TV.

Hutchinson, whose office was just down the hall from the Oval Office and the President’s dining room, also recalled how she heard a loud noise and went to investigate, “noticing ketchup dripping down the wall”, as well as a “shattered porcelain plate”.

The valet said the President was “extremely angry” at the Attorney General’s AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall, so she “grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall to help the valet out.”

You see the highlights from Cassidy Hutchinson’s incredible testimony here: