Tuesday, June 28, 2022

“Real, real bad”

“Things might get real, real bad on January sixth”: White House chief of statt Mark Meadows to his assistant Cassidy Hutchinson, January 2, 2021.

And when Rudy Giuliani was around, Hutchinson heard references to the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

And when Meadows was told about the presence of weapons on January 6, he did not even look up from his phone. And then he did, and said that he had told Donald Trump.

In other words, they knew. Of course they did.

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And Trump: “Take the fucking mags away.” He wanted magnetometers removed so that those with weapons could enter the space for his rally. Those people weren’t there to hurt him, he said. So when he talked about walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, he was sending armed supporters to the Capitol.

And Trump did intend to walk (or ride) to the Capitol. And enter the House chamber. And he grabbed for the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when told that he was going back to the White House: ”I’m the fucking president. Take me up to the Capitol now.” He also lunged at a Secret Service agent in the vehicle. [The grab and lunge are disputed. Hutchinson was testifying to what she was told.]

Back at the White House, Trump lost his lunch. In other words, he threw it against a wall. Ketchup everywhere. Hutchinson says that Trump had thrown dishes or flipped a tablecloth on other occasions as well.

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Hutchinson knew enough to caution Meadows not to go to the Willard Hotel on January 5, where Michael Flynn and Roger Stone was scheming. Meadows called in instead.

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As rioters were nearing the Capitol, Hutchinson asked Meadows if he had told Trump. No, Meadows said. The president wants to be alone.

“He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat”: Meadows to Trump lawyer Pat Cipollone.

”You heard it, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong”: Meadows to Cipollone, about the chant to hang Mike Pence.

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Trump wanted a January 7 post-insurrection statement to cast blame on Pence and suggest pardons for rioters. Meadows suggested language about pardons as well.

Pardon requests came from Giuliani and Meadows.

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Liz Cheney is closing with accounts from unidentified witnesses of the pressure put on them before they testified to the January 6 committee. “He knows you’re loyal,” and so on. Under his eye, right? That’s witness tampering.

comments: 2

Anonymous said...

On January 21, 2016, I told 3 women standing by the Daniel Webster statute in front of the NH State House: "Trump is going to make Nixon look like a saint." They did a double take and just shook their heads.

I always knew it was worse than what we saw.

kirsten

Michael Leddy said...

Oh, you were right.

I said to my children that what we heard today is both unbelievable and believable. Unbelievable (I don’t mean literally) because it defies all norms, believable because everything we’ve already heard makes it completely plausible. A surprise but not a surprise.