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Did Trump really try to grab wheel of The Beast? Cassidy Hutchinson slammed by those who were THERE

Cassidy Hutchinson, made some shocking revelations in front of the House select committee investigating the US Capitol riots

Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked for Donald Trump’s then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave her testimony on Tuesday, June 28, in front of the House select committee investigating the riot in which Trump’s supporters disrupted President Biden’s election victory. Hutchinson made some shocking revelations. Furious Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential Beast SUV away from his Secret Service driver in a desperate effort to join his armed supporters on January 6, 2021 – shouting, “I’m the f—ing president! Take me up to the Capitol now!” according to shocking testimony from a top former White House aide.

But the Secret Service is reportedly denying her claims that President Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of 'The Beast' and that he 'lunged at Secret Service' when agents refused to take him to the Capitol.

Bobby Engel, who was the lead agent on Trump's detail, and the presidential driver at the time are prepared to testify under oath to the committee that Hutchinson's testimony is incorrect, according to reports. 

According to Hutchinson Engel stopped the 45th president from steering the Beast toward the Capitol to join the mob that he had just finished telling to “fight like hell” to stop the election from being “stolen,” Hutchinson said. Hutchinson testified that immediately after returning to the West Wing from Trump’s speech she saw Anthony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was detailed to the White House and served as deputy chief of operations. Ornato pulled her into his office, where Trump's head of security at the time, Robert Engel, was sitting in a chair looking "somewhat discombobulated and a little lost," she said.

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She said Ornato told her that when Trump entered "The Beast" and told her about a clash inside the Beast involving Engel and Trump. “I looked at Tony, and he said, ‘Did you f—ing hear what happened in the Beast?’” Hutchinson went on. “He 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 or likely to happen and that Bobby had more information.”

She went on to explain that when Engel told him they couldn't for security reasons, Trump had "a very strong, very angry response," she said she was told. "The president said something to the effect of, 'I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,'" she said. "reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel," she said Ornato told her. Engel then grabbed his arm and said, "Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the Capitol," she said.

Hutchinson's other shocking remarks

1. The 45th president threw his lunch against the wall after then-Attorney General Bill Barr publicly announced in December 2020 that the Department of Justice had found no evidence of widespread election fraud.

2. Four days before the riot, Meadows warned Hutchinson “things might get real, real bad on January 6.”

3. Trump demanded the Secret Service let armed people into the “Stop the Steal” rally because the crowd did not look large enough in camera shots, saying at one point: “They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f—ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.”

4. White House counsel Pat Cipollone said the administration would be charged with “every crime imaginable” if Trump traveled to the Capitol building with the rioters.

5. After rioters breached the Capitol, Meadows informed Cipillone that Trump didn’t “want to do anything.”

6. When Cipollone told Meadows that rioters were “literally calling for the vice president [Mike Pence] to be f–ing hung,”

7. Hutchinson recalled, Meadows said of Trump: “You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”

8. Both Meadows and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani expressed interest in receiving a presidential pardon for their involvement in the events of Jan. 6.

9. A number of White House staffers – including Meadows, Cipollone, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner – urged the president to make a forceful speech denouncing the violence the following day out of fear of the 25th Amendment being invoked.

In a pre-recorded deposition that was played on Tuesday, Hutchinson said she had no idea what Trump would do when he arrived at the Capitol building but recalled: “I know that there were discussions about him having another speech outside of the Capitol before going in. You know, there was a conversation about him going into the House chamber at one point.”

During her live testimony, the aide recalled getting a phone call from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after Trump vowed to his supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.” The message from the Republican leader was clear: “Don’t come up here.” Trump called his thousands of supporters to “fight like hell” during his pre-riot speech to persuade Republicans to reject swing-state electors for Biden, but his defenders point out that he also called on them to do so “peacefully and patriotically.”

Trump's denial of the accusations

Trump denied all the accusations against Hutchinson on his social media Truth Social, saying in a statement, "I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and "leaker")". “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, very much like the Unselect Committee itself – Wouldn’t even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing", he said in his statement.

“Why did she want to go with us if she felt we were so terrible? I understand that she was very upset and angry that I didn’t want her to go, or be a member of the team,” the former president alleged. “She is bad news!” “She changed lawyers a couple of days ago, and with it, her story totally changed! SHOCKER???” he added. “A Total Phony!!!” Trump wrote in an additional post.

However, many Trump White House staffers came to Hutchinson's defense on social media. “Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is,” tweeted Sarah Matthews, a White House deputy press secretary during Trump’s final year in office.

"Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is", she further wrote.

“This is explosive stuff. If Cassidy is making this up, they will need to say that. If she isn’t they will have to corroborate. I know her. I don’t think she is lying,” wrote Mick Mulvaney, who served as Trump’s acting chief of staff from 2019 to 2020.

Shortly after the hearing, Mulvaney declared Tuesday to be a “very, very bad day for Trump.” “A stunning 2 hours: 1)Trump knew the protesters had guns 2)He assaulted his own security team 3)There may be a line from ProudBoys [sic] to the WH 4)Top aides asked for pardons 5)The commission thinks they have evidence of witness tampering. That is a very, very bad day for Trump.”