Trump didn't want to stop Capitol attack, former White House aide testifies

By NPR Washington Desk

Published June 28, 2022 at 3:33 PM EDT

A video of former President Donald Trump from his Jan. 6 Rose Garden statement is played as Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing held by the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

President Trump didn't want to do anything to stop the rioters attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified before the House committee investigating the attack Tuesday as she recounted conversations between White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Inside the West Wing, Cipollone came "barreling down the" hallway, Hutchinson said, and told Meadows "The rioters have gotten into the Capitol, Mark. We need to go see the President now."

Meadows responded "He doesn't want to do anything," Hutchinson recalled.

Cipollone then told Meadows "Something needs to be done, or somebody is going to die and this is going to be on your effing hands," Hutchinson testified.

By that time, Trump had sent a tweet disparaging Vice President Mike Pence, who he was pressing to stop the certification of the 2020 election, and the rioters were chanting "Hang Mike Pence!"

"They're literally calling for the VP to be effing hung," Cipollone said, according to Hutchinson.

"You heard him, Pat," Meadows responded, Hutchinson said. "He thinks Mike deserves it."

Cipollone replied "Effing crazy," she recalled.

The recounting of the exchange shows how closely Trump and his White House was watching what was going on in the Capitol, even as they struggled to get Trump to stop it.