Former Trump acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney explained to CNN's Jake Tapper his fear for the mental stability of Mark Meadows as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was unfolding.
"Leading this hour, she must have struck a nerve," Tapper said. "The lawyer for former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson issued a statement stating that Hutchinson stands by all of the testimony she gave to the Jan. 6 select committee yesterday, under oath. Several of Donald Trump's staunchest Republican defenders have attacked her publicly, though not under oath, we should note."
"Others have been publicly silent after Hutchinson's stunning testimony. "In private, however, former Trump aides tell CNN the testimony painted a picture of Trump completely unhinged and losing all control," he reported. "A damning portrait."
For analysis, Tapper interviewed Mulvaney, who also served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Congress, as a special envoy for Northern Ireland, and in both houses of the South Carolina legislature.
The interview occurred after Mulvaney wrote an op-ed published by USA Today where he wrote, "Things could get very dark for the former president."
"Cassidy Hutchinson gave remarkable testimony about chief of staff Mark Meadows seemingly unwilling to engage," Tapper said "What did you make of her recollection that, you know, she or Tony Ornoto or Pat Cipollone, people were trying to tell him things and he was sitting on the sofa scrolling on the phone, unresponsive, especially when they were trying to tell Meadows about the threat of violence?"
"That struck me personally, that's my sofa," Mulvaney replied. "I used that sofa, it was my office, my fireplace he was sitting by."
"I understand exactly what the dynamics are there," he continued. "The visual image of Cassidy coming to the door, maybe with Pat there, or Pat there a little afterward and trying to talk to Mark and Mark not even looking up, according to Cassidy, and just staring at his phone and they have to interrupt him to make sure he's paying attention sends a disturbing message of what the West Wing was like. I was texting with a colleague of mine in the West Wing at the time, and said, 'Look, was Mark completely incompetent or having a nervous breakdown?' The response was it was a little bit of both."
"The West Wing was clearly broken and the testimony yesterday actually made me feel bad for some of the good people still there who had to work in that environment with the chief of staff who was so obviously disengaged, again, according to what Cassidy said yesterday," Mulvaney said. "Very disturbing for me to hear that as a former chief of staff."