Hutchinson: Trump Chanted 'Hang Mike Pence' with the Crowd as He Watched on TV
Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House aide to Mark Meadows, has a lot to say in her new book, Enough, and perhaps the most stunning excerpt was just read on tonight's episode of The Rachel Maddow Show.
Hutchinson, whose testimony during the January 6 committee hearings riveted the nation as she recounted Donald Trump's dangerous behavior on that infamous day, says in her book that Donald Trump not only watched the attack on the Capitol on live TV, but that Trump also chanted along with the insurrectionists calling to "hang Mike Pence."
Hutchinson writes:
Jim Jordan calls minutes minutes later. I feel a pang of hope. "One sec, I'll go get him."
I go to the dining room. "Is Mark [Meadows] in there?" I ask the valet.
He nods.
I look through the peephole and see the back of his suit. I open the door to get his attention. The group is having a heated conversation about the rioters.
Mark sees me, and I point at the phone screen, where Jim's caller ID is visible. He comes over to take the phone, propping the door open with his body as he talks to Jim.
I take a few steps back as Mark takes my place in the doorway and I strain to listen to both conversations. The TV in the oval dining room is blaring. The president is yelling.
What is he saying? I can't make it out. I hear him say "hang" repeatedly. Hang? Hang? What's that about? Mark hands his phone back to me. The cue for me to return to my desk.
Back in my office, my phone notifies me of a Trump tweet: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"
I'm struggling to process what's happening as Mark, Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin, and Eric Herschmann stumble back into the office. I overhear their conversation, and suddenly everything makes sense.
They are calling for the vice president to be hanged.
The president is okay with it.
He doesn't want to do anything
He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.
He thinks Mike is a traitor.
This is crazy. We need to be doing something more.
Hutchinson previously revealed to the January 6 committee that Meadows told Cipollone that Trump thought Mike Pence "deserves it" and that Trump "doesn't think [the insurrectionists are] doing anything wrong."
Donald Trump was hopeful that Mike Pence, acting in his ministerial role, would delay certification of the election to give Trump time to overthrow our democracy. When Pence did the bare minimum and failed to go along with the scheme, Trump was livid. It seems like every day we learn more about more about the depths of Trump's depravity, of which there is no bottom.
Watch the the clip above.
