Allies of former President Donald Trump have tried to discredit the testimony of former aide Cassidy Hutchinson by disputing some of her claims, particularly that she was told that Trump lunged at a member of his own Secret Service while trying to go to the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
However, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman notes that there is no disputing some of Hutchinson's claims, including that the former president was angry that some of his supporters were being denied access to his "Stop the Steal" rally because they had come armed with weapons.
Writing on Twitter, Haberman says that "it was reported in real time that Trump was furious about the crowd size and screaming at aides about it on Jan. 6, 2021." In fact, Haberman adds, "there's ample information about it."
Trump's speech at the "Stop the Steal" rally does show he was fixated on the size of the crowd and was upset that the news cameras weren't showing the thousands of supporters who were not allowed into the designated area.
RELATED: The Jan. 6 committee's surprise witness delivered a surprisingly devastating blow to Trump
"Media will not show the magnitude of this crowd," Trump said at the very start of his speech. "Even I, when I turned on today, I looked, and I saw thousands of people here. But you don't see hundreds of thousands of people behind you because they don't want to show that."
Later in the speech, Trump seemed to suggest to the Secret Service that more of his supporters should be brought in.
"And I'd love to have if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed," Trump said while pointing outward. "The military, the Secret Service -- and we want to thank you, and the police, law enforcement, great, you're doing a great job -- but I'd love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them come up, please?"
Watch video of the relevant parts of Trump's speech below or at this link.