The ex-aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, took to the stand at today’s surprise January 6 hearing. Hutchinson opened some eyes recounting an alleged attempt by the former president to join the crowd at the Capitol by forcibly grabbing his limousine's steering wheel when the Secret Service thwarted the idea.

Closing Bell

Ex-Aide Says Trump Grabbed Steering Wheel in Attempt to Join Jan. 6 Rioters

and I do want to bring back cheddar news is Megan pratts live in our D. C. Studio has been who has been following this hearing very closely along with us here on closing bell Megan of course the first part of this hearing before the recess was about former president trump's efforts to go with the protesters to the capital. Let's start there from the top. What did we learn about those efforts in this testimony today? Let's start with the fact that the president was incredibly sympathetic to the idea that protesters wanted to march on the capitol. That he knew that he had specifically sent them there and that he wanted to go along with them when he was told that it was not safe. He said look they have guns but they're not here for me. Take the mags but let them go, let them go to the capital. They can march from here meaning the white house. I think that that was a moment where you started to see that trump was completely aligned with the idea of overturning the election result. Even though in hearings, up to this point we have learned that he knew that he did not win the election. He was told repeatedly that he did not win the election and yet continued to perpetuate this big lie as it is called. But perhaps it was a moment inside his motorcade. That was the most alarming and I want to play you Hutchinson's testimony from what happened inside the vehicle. Take a look he thought that they were going up to the capitol and when bobby had related to him, we're not we don't have the assets to do it. It's not secure. We're going back to the West Wing. The President had very strong, very angry response to that. Um Tony described him as being irate, the President said something to the effect of I'm the acting president, take me up to the capital now, to which bobby responded sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr Engel grabbed his arm said sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel, we're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the capitol so you can hear there that it became physical between the president and the head of his Secret Service detail and trying to explain to him that he was not safe to go to the capitol and the Secret Service would not permit such a visit that he was so irate that he tried to grab the steering wheel away from the head of his security detail to change direction of the vehicle. And just to understand the kind of vehicle that the president rides around in whether it's a current president or a former president, it's called the beast and it is a million dollar vehicle that is completely secure. It is basically the safest one can be in a vehicle on the roads and still to get the president from Point A to point B. There are roads shut down, there is heavy police presence and a huge motorcade to try to sort of deflect attention from the vehicle he himself might be in. So this for the president to try to take over that vehicle to get himself to the capital gives a really good perspective. Kristen into his frame of mind on january 6th itself after he came off that stage at the ellipse and started to try to sort of join in the protest, join in the revelry and joining the ultimate rioting that took place at the U. S. Capitol on that day. Um it was quite an eye opening testimony Megan today to say the least again, this time just from one witness, a surprise last minute testimony, but again, certainly a very informative one. And so after recess we saw the committee also asked questions about what happened inside of the White House as the deadly insurrection I was occurring. What did we learn about the inner workings of the White House as this riot was unfolding? Well, we learned a lot kristen and it really was clear as Hutchinson said that that the people within the White House sort of fell in three different camps of idea when it came to the election results. A large portion of them knew that the election was over. They knew that president trump had not won that election, but they weren't vocalizing that to him. Another portion was vocalizing to him sir, you lost this election, it's time to move on. And then a third group was sort of supporting him in this big lie conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from him. And that Meadows really was sort of in that middle group but was pressured to continue to try to do more when it came to convincing the president that the election was over. Especially as the violence unfolded on january 6th because remember even though President trump was in the oval office or rather the dining room adjacent to the oval office, he was in the west wing of the White House along with his advisers and staff. Vice President. Mike Pence was at the capital doing his vice presidential duty as the overseer of the Electoral College account, which meant that he was not safely in the west wing, he was as we now know unsafely in the capitol building and at the time that this was all going on, the president was informed that there were chants of hang mike pence, hang mike pence and that a gallows had been erected on the capitol grounds. And I want you to listen how Hutchinson explains what the response was to that inside the room with the former president. I remember Pat saying something to the effect of Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president Hong 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 to which said something, this is acting crazy. We need to be doing something more briefly stepped into Mark's office And when Mark had said something, when markets said something to the effect of he doesn't think they're doing anything wrong now. I want to read something to you Kristen and I'm gonna look down at my computer for just a second. This is a tweet from former Chief of Staff to President donald trump Mcmullen veiny who said this? My guess is that before this is over we will be hearing testimony from or Nado angle and Meadows all three of them in the vehicle with former President Donald trump in that earlier moment that we heard this is explosive stuff. If Cassidy is making this up, they will need to say that if she isn't they will have to corroborate. I know her, I don't think she is lying. I think that this sort of reiteration from a former Chief of Staff himself, if not Meadows directly is incredibly important because we know that Meadows is no longer cooperating with the committee. He refuses to testify. He has been held in contempt of Congress. So Kristen a lot to unpack from this testimony and clearly the insight inside the White House in that day, january 6th the day after with the presidents frame of mind refusing to condemn this violence was really, really sort of monumental moment for this committee, as it tries to convince americans that this is worth caring about, and this is worth doing something about.