<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656528883715,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656528883715,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56522491", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1043215"} }); ","_id":"00000181-b0d0-d447-ad8b-f0d2c6470000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe Jan. 6 House committee held a last-minute hearing on Tuesday, again attempting to distract people from other disastrous events unfolding in the country. Unfortunately for them, their “star witness” didn’t do her job in helping with that distraction — she merely exposed it.
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified to the events that happened leading up to and on Jan. 6.
“With intimate knowledge of what went down inside the Trump West Wing, Ms. Hutchinson shared what she saw and heard during the attack on the Capitol,” a New York Times column wrote.
Yet if someone was actually to listen to Hutchinson’s testimony, she was simply regurgitating what she thought other people said, what they saw and heard.
The article continues, “One of the most breathtaking bits of Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony was her recounting of what Mr. Meadows said.”
Speaking on an event over a year and a half ago, Hutchinson described again and again, in painstaking detail, White House staff “saying something to the effect of …”
Hutchinson later recounted the story of Tony Ornato, the former White House deputy chief of staff for operations, explaining how Trump allegedly lunged at the head of his security detail, Robert Engel, in the motorcade after he refused to go to the Capitol building.
Testimony significantly based on hearsay is hardly testimony at all. The reaction hours after her testimony is proof of that.
According to the Daily Beast, “Various outlets also reported that Ornato and Engel, the lead Secret Service agent in the vehicle, are willing to testify to the committee disputing Hutchinson’s account.”
Those that were actually in the vehicle at the time dispute Hutchinson’s claim that the former president “assaulted or grabbed at the leader of his security detail or that he grabbed for the steering wheel.”
Not only that, but “the Jan. 6 committee didn’t reach out to the Secret Service in the days before it aired explosive testimony,” according to Politico.
This alone exposes what the committee is truly after. No, not the truth, but a version of the truth that only benefits their case against the Trump administration.
Various people have come to attack Meadows, calling him a coward for not testifying. Some say that by not testifying, he has agreed to all the claims, but there is also the possibility that he thinks it is a complete waste of time. Others would agree.
“Americans are following the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings, but few minds are being changed … just 40% of Americans report that the Jan. 6 attacks had a major impact on their outlook,” according to the Brookings Institute.
Some have painted Hutchinson out to be a hero, someone courageous to fulfill her duty of public service. Yet, reading the transcripts, it’s clear that her testimony is mainly based on statements made by others who did not testify. And if the committee believes this is their “star witness,” they have obviously never played the game telephone.
I don’t think she is lying, I just don’t think she is telling the truth.
Esther Wickham is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
