Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, pauses as she testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U. S.
Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Andrew Harnik, Pool/AP Photo Hutchinson revealed a number of explosive accusations about Trump on the day of the Capitol riot. In response, Trump attacked Hutchinson on Truth Social, and many pro-Trump influencers derided her.
Hutchinson’s testimony appeared to strike a nerve on pro-Trump social media. Pro-Trump influencers, far-right conspiracists, and the GOP have unleashed a torrent of backlash and promoted baseless conspiracies in an attempt to counter this week’s testimony on the events surrounding the Capitol riot from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Hutchinson, who worked for former President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, revealed a slew of explosive allegations about Trump’s actions on the day of the attack.
Among them, she said Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential SUV and lunged at a Secret Service agent, demanding to be driven to the Capitol after his rally finished. Hutchinson also claimed Trump, in an effort to grow the size of the crowd watching his speech on the Ellipse, asked aides to remove the metal detectors blocking people from entering even though he knew some were armed. She also testified that Trump threw his lunch, splattering ketchup on the wall, after Attorney General Bill Barr said there wasn’t sufficient evidence of election voter fraud in 2020.
While the testimony was happening, Trump sent a flurry of posts on his social media platform Truth Social calling Hutchinson a “Total Phony!!!,” “third rate social climber,” and claimed he barely knows who she is. “Her body language is that of a total bull…. artist,” Trump wrote in one post.
“Fantasy Land!”In the aftermath of Hutchinson’s testimony, pro-Trump world influencers and far-right communities have stirred up an array of responses to try to counter Hutchinson’s statements. Some influencers, like the far-right commentator Jack Posobiec and Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington, claimed without evidence that Hutchinson was lying about Trump reaching the steering wheel of the presidential limo known as The Beast because he would be separated from the driver by a partition. But photos from the day showed that Trump did not drive in the limo version of The Beast, but instead in the sports utility vehicle version of his presidential car where he was seated close to the driver.
Some QAnon influencers like Jordan Sather have baselessly suggested that Hutchinson is a “plant” who gave a purposely fake testimony, alluding to her lawyer Jody Hunt, a former Assistant Attorney General under Jeff Sessions, as some sort of proof of malfeasance. “Is Cassidy being used as a Trojan Horse to destroy the credibility of these hearings with her obviously fake testimony?” Sather wrote to his audience of 84,000 Telegram users on Tuesday. Meanwhile, far-right Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has a history of promoting falsehoods, claimed on Twitter that Hutchinson was lying during her testimony and shared a clip saying “Satan” would be the January 6 committee’s “next super star witness. ” The House Judiciary GOP’s official Twitter also wrote a tweet suggesting that all of Hutchinton’s statements were based on hearsay, another popular line among conservatives defending Trump online. Similarly, far-right outlets like Brietbart and The Gateway Pundit shared stories claiming without evidence that Hutchinson’s sworn-under-oath testimony contained lies.
Not all conservative media entirely attacked Hutchinson. Fox News host Bret Baier called her testimony “very compelling” and pointed out that while Trump claimed online that Hutchinson is lying, “Cassidy Hutchinson is under oath, on Capitol Hill. The president is on Truth Social.
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From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/trump-influencers-gop-cassidy-hutchinson-testimony-january-capitol-riot-2022-6
