Jan 6 Hearing: In Bombshell Testimony Trump's Ex-Aide Paints Shocking Picture Of Him

Former President Donald Trump apparently lunged at a Secret Service agent’s throat, and he threw dishes during temper tantrums.

At Tuesday’s hearing of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Cassidy Hutchinson, who is a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, painted a devastating picture of Trump, reported BBC. Hutchinson described how Trump wanted to go to the U.S. Capitol with his supporters on Jan. 6 last year. He wanted to go after giving a fiery speech that urged them to fight for him, reported The Guardian.

As part of her testimony, Hutchinson said that Tony Ornato, the White House deputy chief of staff, told her that Trump had a “very strong, very angry response” when he was informed he would be driven back to the White House instead. The businessman-turned-politician allegedly told a Secret Service agent that he is the "effing president. Take me up to the Capitol now.” When the agent refused, Trump tried to control the steering wheel of “the Beast," which is the presidential limousine.

Robert Engel, Trump's security detail, grabbed his arm and said that he needed to take his hand off the steering wheel. He told the then-President that they were going back to the West Wing, and not to the Capitol. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Engel’s clavicle -- something that the agent has never contradicted in his account, Hutchinson told the hearing.

The Jan. 6 panel was also told how Trump erupted in fury on Dec. 1 last year after his attorney general, William Barr, gave an interview to the Associated Press saying that there was no evidence of fraud during the 2020 Presidential election. Hutchinson shared that at the time, she saw ketchup and a broken porcelain plate on the wall of a dining room at the White House. She said that the valet had articulated that Trump was "extremely angry at the attorney general’s AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall.”

She shared that there were several times when similar incidents happened. She was aware of Trump either "throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go on to the floor and break or go everywhere.”

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, said that never before in American history have "we ever seen credible testimony this shocking against a President of the United States before Congress."

Aides to Trump were also left speechless amid the first half of Hutchinson's testimony. They acknowledged to CNN that her testimony was "a bombshell" with potentially huge repercussions for the former President. One Trump adviser, referring to the presidential limousine, said that this is a bombshell, stunning and shocking, and that the story about 'The Beast'..."I don't have words. It's just stunning." The adviser added that this painted a picture of Trump "completely unhinged and completely losing all control which, for his base, they think of him as someone who is in command at all times. This completely flies in the face of that."