‘Let the people in’

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/briefing/trump-capitol-hearings.html

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How much did President Donald Trump and his top advisers know ahead of the Jan. 6 attack about the potential for violence? Until the past few weeks, the answer to that question had been unclear.

But the Jan. 6 committee hearings have removed much of the doubt: Trump and his aides knew that the rally he held near the White House that day was likely to escalate into an attack on the Capitol.

Yesterday, testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson — a former aide to the White House chief of staff — offered the clearest evidence yet that Trump knew violence was possible. He learned early on Jan. 6 that some rally attendees were armed, but wanted security to let them in, Hutchinson said. “They’re not here to hurt me,” she recalled him saying.

Hutchinson also said yesterday that:

Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff at the time and Hutchinson’s boss, told her on Jan. 2 that “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”

The White House knew that the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a recent history of political violence, planned to be in Washington on Jan. 6. Hutchinson heard the group discussed before Trump’s rally, when Rudy Giuliani was present, and Giuliani said on Jan. 2 that Jan. 6 would be “a great day.”

Tony Ornato, another aide, told Meadows and Trump before the attack that some Trump supporters had come to hear his speech outside the White House armed with knives, bear spray and other weapons.

Trump wanted the Secret Service to let armed supporters into his rally. “Take the f-ing mags away,” Hutchinson overheard Trump say, referring to the magnetometers used to screen attendees. “They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in.”

Trump wanted to join the protesters at the Capitol after his speech. After learning he was instead being driven back to the White House, Hutchinson testified, Trump cursed at his security detail and tried to wrest the steering wheel from his driver. Trump denied the story yesterday, and Secret Service officials said agents would testify that he did not reach for the wheel.

(Here’s a timeline of Hutchinson’s account of Jan. 6, with videos from her testimony.)

Most of Hutchinson’s testimony, which was under oath, referred to conversations she witnessed or to events that other Trump aides described to her. “Hutchinson is joining the lineup of explosive witnesses to appear at congressional hearings,” The Times’s Carl Hulse wrote, comparing her to Oliver North, who testified about the Iran-contra scandal, and John Dean, who testified about Watergate.

(Our colleague Maggie Haberman profiles Hutchinson here.)

The committee will hold more hearings in the coming weeks, and other details will no doubt emerge. But the fundamental story of Jan. 6 is clear: A United States president who lost re-election was aware of — and encouraged — a violent attack on the Capitol intended to prevent the transfer of power to his opponent, the election’s victor. Afterward, most members of that defeated president’s party decided not to hold him accountable for doing so. Instead, with rare exceptions, they largely ignored or even repeated his lies about the election.

There is also reason to believe that Trump or other Republicans may attempt to overturn a future election. Altogether, it represents the most serious threat to American democracy in many decades.

The committee described phone calls to witnesses, made by Trump allies, that it suggested were meant to intimidate the witnesses.

Hutchinson testified that Trump, enraged by a denial from his attorney general that the election was stolen, threw his lunch against a White House wall. (The Times’s Peter Baker catalogs Trump’s rage in the final days of his presidency.)

The committee played video of Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, taking the Fifth Amendment after Representative Liz Cheney asked him if he believed in the peaceful transfer of political power.

Meadows and Giuliani sought presidential pardons for their role in Jan. 6.

A lawyer for Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, said she would not testify to the committee.

Yesterday’s session played like the Watergate hearings as punched up by the writers’ room of “24,” our TV critic writes.

Hutchinson reminds us that being a public servant means stepping up to do hard things, Times Opinion’s Michelle Cottle writes. Bret Stephens asks if the hearings will finally bring down the cult of Trump.

The case for prosecuting Trump just got stronger, David French of The Dispatch argues. (Legal experts told The Times that Hutchinson’s testimony raised the likelihood that Trump would face criminal charges.)

Kathy Hochul easily won the Democratic nomination for New York governor.

Darren Bailey, a far-right Illinois state senator whose campaign Democrats boosted, won the Republican primary to challenge Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

In the Republican Senate primary in Colorado, Joe O’Dea, a construction company owner who favors some abortion access, beat a rival who attended Jan. 6.

Representative Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, lost his primary to Mary Miller, a Trump-backed congresswoman who once spoke approvingly of Hitler.

Mike Flood, a G.O.P. state senator, beat the Democratic candidate Patty Pansing Brooks in a Nebraska special House election to replace Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican who was convicted of lying to the F.B.I.

Representative Sean Casten, a moderate, defeated Representative Marie Newman, a progressive, in the Democratic primary in a newly drawn House district in Illinois.

Here are more results.

A federal court allowed Tennessee to ban abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, while a Texas judge temporarily blocked a total statewide abortion ban.

Wisconsin Democrats sued the state’s Legislature seeking to remove an abortion ban from the 1800s.

Xavier Becerra, President Biden’s secretary of health and human services, said the administration would ensure women have access to abortion pills.

“Disorienting”: Women who support abortion rights reflected on the shock of the past few days.

Illinois is set to become an island of abortion access. Can its clinics meet the demand?

Turkey dropped its opposition to NATO membership for Sweden and Finland, clearing the way for their entry. At a summit in Madrid today, the alliance will formally invite the two countries to join.

Women attacked by Russian soldiers near Kyiv want justice. But Ukrainian officials face daunting challenges in prosecuting the crimes.

Biden led his Group of 7 counterparts to agree to cap the price of Russian oil, a move that could prompt the Kremlin to further restrict supply.

An F.D.A. panel recommended that vaccine makers create shots targeting the Omicron variant.

Two Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, have become the dominant forms of the virus in the U.S.

An abandoned truck carrying migrants near San Antonio lacked a working cooling system. At least 51 people died.

The Supreme Court reinstated a Republican-drawn Louisiana congressional map that a federal judge had said diluted Black voters’ power.

Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls.

Clinics nationwide will begin offering monkeypox vaccinations to anyone who might have been exposed.

A nationwide lifeguard shortage led New York City to cancel its free swim lesson program.

A German court sentenced a former Nazi concentration camp guard, now aged 101, to five years in prison for being an accessory to thousands of murders.

Mortgage rates in the U.S. are at their highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis, cooling housing markets.

Doctors detected C.T.E., a brain disease common to football players, in a retired American soccer player for the first time.

Serena Williams lost in the first round of Wimbledon to Harmony Tan of France.

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American imprisoned in Iran, urges Biden to help free him.

Israeli politics is starting to mirror America’s scorched-earth politics, says Thomas Friedman.

Cutting corners: How are families adjusting to inflation? Downgraded vacations, less takeout.

Lost: USB sticks with data on 460,000 people were misplaced during a night of drinking.

Quench: Fruits and veggies are a great way to stay hydrated.

Short trips: These getaways are just 100 miles from Seattle, New York or Chicago.

Shopping guide: Invest in a tablecloth.

Advice from Wirecutter: The best beach umbrella.

Lives Lived: Margaret Keane painted images of sad, big-eyed children trapped in dystopian worlds. For years, her husband said he had painted them — false claims that a “paint-off” in court ultimately demolished. Keane died at 94.

Taika Waititi might be the busiest man in Hollywood. He was behind the camera of the new Marvel movie “Thor: Love and Thunder” as director and co-writer. He was in front of it for the HBO pirate comedy series “Our Flag Means Death,” playing Blackbeard. He’s a voice in the new Pixar film “Lightyear.” He is creating two projects for Netflix based on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Waititi’s secret to managing the workload: not thinking about it. “If I was to step back and look at all of the things I’m doing, I’d probably have a panic attack,” he told The Times’s Dave Itzkoff. “I know there’s too many things. I know I’m doing a lot. I just have to keep pivoting every couple of hours.”

This crowd-pleasing potato cake takes on whatever seasoning or toppings you want.

“The Tennis Podcast” started around a dining room table. Ten years later, it’s a major presence in the sport.

Davey Davis’s new novel, “X,” is a queer noir set in a troubling near-future world.

Late night hosts reacted to testimony from the latest Jan 6. hearings.

The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was tailwind. Here is today’s puzzle.

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: DNA sequences (5 letters).

And here’s today’s Wordle. After, use our bot to get better.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David

P.S. Tariro Mzezewa, a Times national correspondent, is leaving to join The Wall Street Journal.

Here’s today’s front page.

“The Daily” is about the explosive Jan 6. hearing.

Matthew Cullen, Natasha Frost, Isabella Kwai, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.