WASHINGTON (Reuters) -An angry Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the Secret Service limousine when the then-president was told he would not be joining supporters moving on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a former aide testified on Tuesday.
Speaking to the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described Trump’s actions after he finished a speech at the Ellipse outside the White House where he exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol.
Trump wanted to join the protesters at the seat of government, where lawmakers were meeting to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican Trump in the 2020 election, she said.
“I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Hutchinson quoted Trump as saying to Secret Service agents.
When he got into the limo, nicknamed “the Beast,” he was told they would not be going to the Capitol.
A Secret Service agent had to physically restrain Trump who, sitting in the back seat, used his free hand to lunge toward the neck of Secret Service agent Robert Engel, Hutchinson testified.
“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel,” she testified.
Trump denied her account in a social media post. He said he never tried to grab the steering wheel.
“Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is ‘sick’ and fraudulent,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.
He also denied Hutchinson’s testimony that he threw food and plates at the White House on several occasions.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Chris Reese and Howard Goller)
