Former President Donald Trump hit back at former aide to the previous White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, on Thursday over her testimony before the Jan. 6 committee.
Hutchinson testified under oath that Trump ordered his two Secret Service agents, Robert Engel and Tony Ornato, to take him to the Capitol, then lunged for the steering wheel from the backseat and grabbed Engel by the clavicle. The two agents are both reportedly slated to publicly denounce her testimony.
“I thought it was absolutely crazy,” Trump told Newsmax’s John Bachman. “This committee is, a lot of people say, illegally formed, but when you look at what they’re doing and when you look at what they’re saying and what they’re doing to the country — now, the good news is, a lot of people aren’t watching, a lot of people aren’t listening to it — but they’re trying to do real harm.”
“This lady yesterday, is there something wrong with her?” he continued. “She said I jumped from a car and I started strangling … a Secret Service agent who I know very well? I grabbed the steering wheel of a car, said I wanted guns at my rally. I didn’t want guns. I have to speak too, and I don’t want guns for anybody.”
“The Secret Service came out and said this story is completely false. The woman is living in fantasy land,” Trump added. “I think it’s just a shame that this is happening to our country.”
Trump said there is no Republican, besides Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, to dispute the testimonies before the committee. He said Hutchinson’s testimony had not been confirmed with the Secret Service agents, who later denied the accusations. (RELATED: Yet Another Detail From Bombshell J6 Testimony Contested)
“Who would do that? I would grab a Secret Service person by the throat?” the former president said. “These guys lift 350 pounds. I don’t.”
“These are great people, they’ve devoted their lives to it, and I think they were very embarrassed by it, because it makes them sound terrible,” Trump added. “It was very nice that they came to my defense, I thought it was incredible, actually, because some whack-job can say this stuff and get away with it?”
Trump said Hutchinson wanted to work for him in Florida after Jan. 6, but he did not hire her due to reports that she was “not good.”
“I think the woman is, she’s got serious problems, let me put it that way,” he said. “Mental problems.”
Bachman asked for the former president’s reaction to Fox News and other media outlets extensively covering the story. Fox News host Bret Baier questioned if Hutchinson would risk perjury by lying under oath. The former president called Baier’s remarks “strange.”
“Here’s the story: it didn’t happen,” he said. “Other things didn’t happen. They said that I encouraged people to have guns. I didn’t encourage people, I never spoke to anybody about it. I didn’t encourage anybody to have guns, and I’m one of the speakers, I don’t want people out there with guns for me, either. But I don’t want — maybe more importantly — for other people to get hurt.”
He added that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser turned down his request to have 10,000 – 20,000 troops be present at the Capitol. Had his request been granted, the events that took place would never have happened, Trump said. Yet these details are not being covered by the committee or the “fake news,” he said.