Trump tried to join Capitol riot
Former US president Donald Trump angrily lunged at his Secret Service driver and grabbed at the steering wheel of his limousine in a bid to join the crowd as it marched on the Capitol on the day of the deadly insurrection, an aide testified Tuesday.
In some of the most explosive testimony so far to the House committee probing the violence, Cassidy Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, said the president had demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his speech near the White House.
Trump became irate when he was told that it was impossible for security reasons, and he tried to wrestle the Secret Service for control of his official car, Hutchinson testified.
Trump, apparently watching the televised hearing, attempted to discredit Hutchinson in real time in a multiple-post rant on his social media network, dismissing the episode as a "fake story".
Hutchinson was a central figure in the Trump administration and able to offer the committee its first blow-by-blow account of activity inside the White House.
She testified that Trump and some of his top lieutenants were aware of the possibility of violence -- contradicting claims that the assault was spontaneous and had nothing to do with the administration.
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