Cassidy Hutchinson made one thing very clear in her testimony.
Were it not for civil servants, lawyers, and longtime federal employees, former President Trump would have made Jan. 6 far, far worse.
Continue reading “Aides Dissuaded Trump From Making Jan. 6 So Much Worse”The Jan. 6 Committee just finished a groundbreaking hearing with Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows who interacted with top White House and Trump campaign figures in the days leading up to the Capitol attack, and during the attack itself.
Continue reading “The Craziest Moments Of Cassidy Hutchinson’s Account Of Jan. 6”The Jan. 6 Select Committee announced a surprise public hearing Monday, and, last night, news broke that today’s hearing will feature Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Hutchinson has previously provided testimony to the committee behind closed doors, but this will be her first public testimony. The committee has also said the hearing is in response to new evidence.
From TPM Reader KB …
For me, the really significant testimony from today was that Trump WANTED and EXPECTED to go to the Capitol with the mob. The part about the drama in the limo is wild and also Trumpian silly, but up until now, I always assumed that he was just lying to the crowd, like he often did, or speaking metaphorically when he said he’d be right there with them. Or, I assumed that he wimped out. But the fact that he knew the mob was armed and STILL planned to march with them – and was royally pissed when he was prevented from doing so – shows his clear intent to lead the insurrection.
Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, offered damning testimony as the witness during the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearing on Tuesday.
Continue reading “A Rundown Of Trump’s Tantrums On And Before Jan. 6, According To Ex-Meadows Aide”Just a few thoughts on today’s rather stunning testimony. The crazy drama in the presidential limousine is certainly the wildest and most explosive part. Legally, the most important is what seems to me like very specific evidence that the former President is guilty of seditious conspiracy, among numerous other crimes. That detail about the magnetometers is key. According to this witness, the President knew the crowd was heavily armed and prepared for violence. He continued to exhort them to march on the Capitol. He specifically said that he didn’t want federal authorities to try to disarm the rioters because they weren’t there to hurt him.
Continue reading “Takeaway”Probably the best, most important way to understand today’s testimony is to realize that all of this and likely much more has been known to numerous high level officials from the beginning. Some of them are purported “good guys,” Vice President Pence, the White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, etc. They all knew all of it from the very beginning. They knew it during the impeachment trial. They knew it during the initial efforts to set up a Jan. 6th Commission. And yet they’ve spent 18 months using every legal and extra-legal means to keep this all secret. Indeed, virtually all of them are refusing to testify down until today.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows whose video-taped testimony has been repeatedly cited by the Jan. 6 Committee, is set to testify publicly Tuesday in a surprise committee hearing that was announced only the day before.
Continue reading “Who Is Cassidy Hutchinson? And Why Is She A Key Witness? “Cassidy Hutchinson is the surprise witness scheduled to testify this afternoon in a hastily arranged hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee.
The committee wasn’t expected to hold any additional hearings until next month, but it hurriedly announced yesterday a new hearing today, without revealing who the witness would be.
The aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claims to have been present for multiple key meetings and events between Election Day 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021.
For more on Hutchinson:
Punchbowl: “Having covered Meadows and the Trump White House, we can tell you that Hutchison was in the middle of almost everything that happened in the West Wing, so she’s a hugely important witness. Count on it.”
Playbook: “Hutchinson was always going to be a crucial witness, and seemed likely to go public in one of the committee’s July hearings.”
Politico: “It’s unclear why the panel expedited Hutchinson’s hearing, or whether she will appear alongside other significant witnesses.”
We’re getting a clearer picture of what DOJ is up to in the Jan. 6 probes. This gets a little murky so I’ll try to keep it simple.
There appear to be two distinct DOJ investigations under way into the “higher ups” involved in Jan. 6: (1) a typical grand jury investigation that seems to be focused on the fake Trump electors scheme; and (2) a DOJ inspector general probe of misconduct by department officials.
Those two separate and distinct probes got jumbled together in recent days in the coverage of the raid on former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark’s home and the seizure of John Eastman’s cell phone. Those two overt law enforcement activities happened on the same day last week and seem to be tied to the IG’s investigation and not the grand jury probe.
Eastman in particular is highly exercised by the seizure of his cell phone by federal agents while he was at a restaurant in New Mexico. Clark, as you’ll recall, was loudly complaining about not even being able to change out of his pjs while federal agents searched his home.
Eastman is not a DOJ official and wasn’t at the time of the election subversion effort, so he appears to be a witness in the IG probe, not a target. Clark, on the other hand, was a DOJ official at the relevant time and was deeply involved in the coup-ing.
Stay tuned on this.
The latest issue The Franchise is out.
Tressie McMillan Cottom on Dobbs.
Californians will vote in November on whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
Will election-conspiracist Tina Peters win the GOP nod to be Colorado’s top election official?
SAN ANTONIO — A tractor-trailer found near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio contained the bodies of 46 dead people, along with 16 others who have been taken to hospitals, local officials in San Antonio said on Monday evening.
“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a news conference near the scene.
Gov. Greg Abbott used his personal Twitter account to blame it all on Biden:
In central Ukraine, 36 people are still unaccounted for after a Russian missile strike on a shopping killed at least 18.
AP: “A 101-year-old man was convicted in Germany of 3,518 counts of accessory to murder on Tuesday for serving at the Nazis’ Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.”
A small spacecraft launched from New Zealand early this morning aiming to test out a new lunar orbit in anticipation of future manned missions to the moon.
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We have another post-Dobbs poll. This one is from NPR/Marist. About abortion and Roe and Dobbs, it’s broadly in line with the other polls we’ve been discussing. If anything, it’s slightly on the low end of support for Roe. But again, broadly in line with the other polls. But look at this.
Continue reading “Big Polling Move”
