Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony "was so powerful that it temporarily gobsmacked even Fox News," according to a conservative columnist, and clearly sent Donald Trump over the edge.
The former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the House select committee the former president knew his supporters were armed on Jan. 6, 2021, and sent them anyway to the U.S. Capitol, where Congress and vice president Mike Pence were certifying Joe Biden's election win, and The Bulwark columnist Charlie Sykes explained why her testimony was so devastating.
"Yesterday really was Trump’s worst nightmare," Sykes wrote.
The 25-year-old Hutchinson told lawmakers that she was disgusted by Trump's actions, which she called unpatriotic and un-American, and she blamed him for the violence because he lied about his election loss, and Sykes said her testimony was so compelling even the former president had to take notice.
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Hutchinson, who had unique access to Trump and the inner workings of the West Wing, testified at the sixth June hearing of the House committee probing the attack on the US Capitol.
She was a central figure in the White House around the period of the insurrection on January 6 last year.
In some of the most explosive testimony from the hearings so far, Hutchinson said Trump and some of his top lieutenants were aware of the possibility of violence ahead of the attack -- contradicting claims that the assault was spontaneous and had nothing to do with the administration.
"How did Trump himself see this?" Sykes wrote. "He obsesses about appearances, and she was an attractive, poised, and compelling witness. To use Trump’s own term, she looked like she was from 'central casting,' and she made for great television. Which is why TrumpWorld absolutely, positively will work feverishly to discredit her testimony. Which, of course, is already underway."
With additional reporting by AFP