Former President Donald Trump was heard repeatedly shouting the word “hang” in his office while live TV showed a mob of his supporters at the Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence” during the January 6 riot, according to Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell new book.
In her new book Enough, the former White House aide recounted the events of the turbulent day — including what went on at the White House. She reported finding her former boss, Mark Meadows, in the oval dining room, where the “group is having a heated conversation about the rioters.”
She heard the president yelling while the TV was on, Ms Hutchinson wrote. “What is he saying? I can’t make it out. I hear him say ‘hang’ repeatedly. Hang? Hang? What’s that about? Mark hands his phone back to me. The cue for me to return to my desk.”
When she returned to her office, she started putting some of the pieces together when she came across a tweet from Mr Trump. The tweet read: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Ms Hutchinson wrote, “I’m struggling to process what’s happening as Mark [Meadows], [White House counsels] Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin, and [senior adviser] Eric Herschmann stumble back into the office. I overhear their conversation, and suddenly everything makes sense.”
“They are calling for the vice president to be hanged,” she wrote, adding, “The president is okay with it. He doesn’t want to do anything. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong. He thinks Mike is a traitor.”
This account in her book echoes her testimony before the January 6 House panel last year. Ms Hutchinson said last January: “I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, ‘Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be f’ing hung.’” And Mark had responded something to the effect of, ‘You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”
The former aide later explained that she believed “they’re” to be referring to rioters in the Capitol who were chanting for the vice president to be hanged. Mr Pence refused to comply with Mr Trump’s requests to prevent certifying the 2020 election in favour of Joe Biden.
