Trump dismissed January 6 threats and wanted to join crowd, says former aide

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is sworn in by committee chairman Bennie Thompson (Sean Thew/Pool via AP)

Former US president Donald Trump rebuffed his own security’s warnings about armed protesters in the January 6 rally crowd and made desperate attempts to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, according to testimony before the House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, described an angry, defiant president who was trying that day to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning to protest against his 2020 election defeat and who later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the secret service refused to let him go to the Capitol.