Cassidy Hutchinson's Jan. 6 Testimony Painted a Picture for the History Books [View all]

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Cassidy Hutchinson's Jan. 6 Testimony Painted a Picture for the History Books
Behold Mark Meadows, doomscroller in chief, feckless, indifferent, or both.

By Charles P. Pierce
Jun 28, 2022

....That’s pretty much where Cassidy Hutchinson left her former boss, Mark Meadows, and his former boss, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago, when her remarkable testimony was done on Tuesday afternoon. She painted a picture of Meadows on January 6 as the shell-shocked apparatchik in the service of a raging maniac. The president* was organizing armed violence. He wanted to be part of it himself. People in the administration, including Ms. Hutchinson, tried to get through to Meadows so that he would get through to the president*. The lasting image is Meadows on his office couch, scrolling through his phone as American democracy began to come apart. At least Rome got some fiddle music out of Nero as the shit finally came down. From the Washington Post:

Hutchinson said around 2 p.m. or 2:05 p.m. that day, she went to Meadows’ office because she saw rioters were getting closer to breaching the Capitol. Meadows was on his couch, scrolling through his phone, as he had been that morning. “I said, ‘Hey, are you watching the TV, chief? … The rioters are getting really close. Have you talked to the president?’ He said, ‘No, he wants to be alone right now,’” she recalled.“I remember Pat saying to [Meadows], something to the effect of, ‘The rioters have gotten to the Capitol, Mark, we need to go down and see the president now.’ And Mark looked up at and said, ‘He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,’” Hutchinson said.

She added that Cipollone then told Meadows something to the effect of, “Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your f---ing hands. This is getting out of control. I’m going down there.” Hutchinson said at that point Meadows stood up from the couch, gave her both of his phones and told her to let him know if Jordan called him.

Hutchinson was a deeply compelling witness. In 1973, when John Dean testified before the Senate Watergate Committee, his credibility lay in the relentless monotone with which he delivered his testimony. On Tuesday, Hutchinson was clear about what had happened around her in those lunatic days in 2021. But her delivery was clearly influenced by the pressure she’s been under, which probably accounted for the committee’s decision to hustle her testimony ahead of schedule. She was clearly aware that she was handling live ammunition. But she never wavered or faltered. In her hesitancy lay Cassidy Hutchinson’s credibility. And, when asked for her opinion on the events, especially the president*’s apparent enthusiasm for the lynching of Mike Pence, she wasn’t shaky or hesitant at all.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a40450659/cassidy-hutchinsons-jan-6-testimony-mark-meadows-phone-scrolling/