Trump defended Jan. 6 rioters chanting 'hang Mike Pence' and said 'Mike deserves it', ex-White House aide testifies
President Trump defended January 6 Capitol rioters who were changing "hang Mike Pence" by saying "Mike deserves it."
Trump also said that the rioters "weren't doing anything wrong," a former White House aide testified.
Cassidy Hutchinson described discussions with the president and his top advisors on January 6.
Donald Trump defended January 6 Capitol rioters who were chanting "hang Mike Pence" by saying "Mike deserves it," a former White House aide testified during a hearing of the House January 6 Committee on Tuesday.
Trump also said that the rioters "weren't doing anything wrong," the aide testified.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, described discussions with the president and his top advisors on January 6 and in the days leading up to the assault on the Capitol.
"I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, 'Mark, we need to do something more, they're literally calling for the vice president to be f---ing hung,'" Hutchinson said Tuesday, referring to then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
"And Mark had responded something to the effect of, 'You heard it, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn't think they're doing anything wrong,'" Hutchinson recalled.
"To which Pat said something, 'this is f---ing crazy, we need to be doing something more," she continued, which she said was the exact moment she "understood there to be the rioters in the Capitol that were chanting for the vice president to be hung."
Hutchinson remembered seeing Trump's tweet, in which he said Pence did not have the "courage to do what needs to be done."
"As a staffer that works to always represent the administration to the best of my ability and to showcase the good things he had done for the country, I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, and it felt personal, I was really sad," she said. "As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was unamerican."
She continued: "We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard in that moment to digest knowing what I had been hearing down the hall and the conversations that were happening. Seeing that tweet come up and knowing what was happening on the Hill is something I still struggle to work through the emotions of that."
She also revealed that on the same day, Trump lunged at his limo driver while demanding to be taken to the Capitol and he threw his lunch against the wall when he was told that election fraud claims were not legitimate.
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