The former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows gave surprising (and shocking) testimony during the Jan. 6th hearings today, revealing that Donald Trump has a history of violent outbursts. (Well, actually, maybe that’s not all that surprising.)
Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked under Meadows during and after the 2020 Presidential Election, told the House Oversight Committee that Trump was “f*cking furious” with both the results of the election and how his team responded to the insurrection on Capitol Hill. She detailed an incident when Trump instigated a physical altercation with a secret serviceman who refused to drive him to the Capitol so that he could march with his MAGA supporters and help them infiltrate the Senate chambers. She relayed his outrage, not over the fact that the mob carried AR-15 rifles and flags with spears attached to the ends, but over the small size of the crowd gathered for his speech the day the insurrection took place. But, perhaps the weirdest bit of testimony came when Hutchinson described an argument that took place months earlier, immediately following the election results.
According to Hutchinson, in December 2020, Attorney General Bill Barr gave an interview to the AP where he admitted the Department of Justice had not found evidence of any widespread election fraud, a fact that directly contradicted Trump’s “Big Lie” strategy. Though Hutchinson was not present for that initial conversation, she did witness the aftermath of the confrontation between the two men.
“I remember hearing noise coming from down the hallway,” Hutchinson recalled of the time the AP article went live. She detailed how a valet had requested Meadows immediately head to the dining room because Trump wanted to see him. Hutchinson then went to the dining room herself where she saw a valet changing the table cloths. “He motioned for me to come in and then pointed towards the front of the room … where I first noticed there was ketchup dripping down the wall and there was a shattered porcelain plate on the floor. The valet articulated the president was extremely angry at the attorney general’s interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall.”
“There was ketchup dripping off the wall” — Hutchinson testifies Trump literally threw his lunch against the wall after Bill Barr told the AP there was no evidence of election fraud sufficient to overturn the election pic.twitter.com/CFF2ghfzgk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 28, 2022
Apparently, Hutchinson stayed to help with the clean-up saying, “I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall.”
As bizarre and, frankly, ridiculous as this image is considering the President of the United States is supposed to be a grown man, not a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, people are nevertheless having some fun with this bit of behind-the-scenes drama.
there’s something very darkly funny about trump eating a toddler lunch with ketchup after trying to choke out his limo driver
— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) June 28, 2022
Trump as Toddler in Chief — he threw his lunch at the wall because he was upset with AG’s interview.
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 28, 2022
KETCHUP DRIPPING DOWN THE WALL.
As perfect an epitaph for the age as any.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 28, 2022
Ketchup dripping down the walls of the White House because Trump had thrown a plate because he was angry that his attorney general would not go along with his claims of voter fraud…
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 28, 2022
The imagery from Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony is stunning. Broken dishes, ketchup smeared on the walls of the White House, Trump grabbing the steering wheel and physically attacking an aide when he was prevented from joining the insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6…
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 28, 2022
(!) Cassidy Hutchinson says Pres Trump *grabbed* a Secret Service agent’s neck & limo steering wheel as he angrily insisted to that he be driven to the Capitol. She says Trump said, “I’m the F’ing President…Take me to the Capitol.”
Violence had already broken out & SS refused.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 28, 2022
And if you’re wondering why ketchup was the stand-out condiment, according to an Eater article, Trump smears everything, even 28-day dry-aged cuts of premium meat, with it. So it sounds very on-brand.