But within 30 seconds, his conversation with his lead Secret Service agent took a more contentious turn, according to a transcript released on Monday of an interview by House investigators of another Secret Service agent who was driving the car. Mr. Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but his lead agent, Robert Engel, said no, telling him there was no plan in place.
“The president was insistent on going to the Capitol,” recounted the driver, whose name was not disclosed. “It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol. He was not screaming at Mr. Engel. He was not screaming at me. Certainly his voice was raised, but it did not seem to me that he was irate — certainly not, certainly didn’t seem as irritated or agitated as he had on the way to the Ellipse.”
Yeah so it’s true - he wanted to oversee the mob violence he had orchestrated.
The NYT being what it is has chosen to spin it as “yeah, but they didn’t say he lunged at the wheel”. Which. Thanks for the, uh, journalism, I guess?
President Donald J. Trump had just delivered his fiery speech at the Ellipse early on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, setting in motion the attack by his supporters on the Capitol.
Republicans have suggested that the panel did not release the transcript because it contradicts portions of a public account of the incident from a prominent witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at the time.
He said the agency determined it could release redacted versions of six interviews, including the driver’s, to Republicans who are investigating the committee’s work while looking for irregularities or signs of bias.
“This firsthand testimony directly contradicts Cassidy Hutchinson’s story and the former J6 select committee’s narrative,” said Representative Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who has been leading the House G.O.P.
The driver’s transcript is the most detailed firsthand account so far of how Mr. Trump behaved inside his presidential motorcade that day, traveling the short distance from the White House to the Ellipse, and it corroborates several aspects of the testimony of Ms. Hutchinson and other committee witnesses.
After the speech, in which Mr. Trump repeated his baseless claims of election fraud, assailed Mr. Pence and fired up the crowd of his supporters, he got back in the armored S.U.V.
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