Trump knew Jan. 6 rallygoers had weapons but said they were 'not here to hurt me,' key aide testifies

Former U.S. president Donald Trump dismissed the presence of armed protesters headed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and even endorsed their calls to "hang Mike Pence," a key former White House aide told House investigators Tuesday, describing chaotic scenes inside and outside the executive mansion as Trump argued to accompany his supporters.

Trump was informed that some of the protesters in the crowd outside the White House had weapons, but he told officials to "let my people in" and march to the Capitol, testified Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a special assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson depicted a president flailing in anger and prone to violent outbursts as the window to overturn his election loss closed and as aides sought to rein in his impulses. Told by security officials that it wasn't safe to go to the Capitol after he addressed his supporters, he lunged toward the steering wheel of the presidential SUV, she said.

Hutchinson said she was told of the altercation in the armoured vehicle by Meadows' deputy shortly after it happened.

She said she wasn't sure what he would have done at the Capitol as a violent mob of his supporters was breaking in. There were conversations about him "going into the House chamber at one point," Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson quoted Trump as directing his staff, in profane terms, to take away the metal detectors, known as magnetometers or mags, that he thought would slow down supporters who'd gathered in Washington. In videotaped testimony played before the committee, she said the former president said words to the effect of: "'I don't f-in' care that they have weapons,'" Hutchinson recalled Trump saying.

"'They're not here to hurt me. Take the f-in' mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.'" 

As his supporters laid siege to Congress, both Trump and Meadows appeared unconcerned about cries in the crowd to "hang Mike Pence!" The president tweeted during the attack that Pence didn't have the "courage" to object to Joe Biden's victory as he presided over the joint session of Congress that day.

Hutchinson quoted Meadows as saying that Trump "thinks Mike deserves it."

And as for the rioters, Meadows said: "[Trump] doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."

As Trump spoke to thousands of supporters on the Ellipse behind the White House — and more gathered on the Washington Monument grounds, Hutchinson said, she received an angry call from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who had just heard the president say he was coming to the Capitol. "'Don't come up here,'" she said McCarthy told her, before hanging up.

Hutchinson testified that she was told that when Trump got into the limo after his speech, he was told they would not be going to the Capitol.

A Secret Service agent had to physically restrain Trump, who was sitting in the back seat and used his free hand to lunge toward the neck of Secret Service agent Robert Engel, Hutchinson testified.

Trump denied her account in a social media post. He said he never tried to grab the steering wheel.