“There was ketchup dripping down the wall and there’s a shattered porcelain plate on the floor.” Cassidy Hutchinson, the House Jan. 6 committee’s surprise witness, painted the perfect metaphor for the GOP’s continued violent assault on our nation’s increasingly fragile democracy.
In her damning and chilling testimony on Tuesday, Hutchinson, a former top aide to Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, unleashed an arsenal of smoking guns. She not only implicated the Trump administration but exposed the entire right-wing ecosystem as active and willing participants in a failed authoritarian’s desire to use violence, intimidation, and illegality to ensure power for his radicalized MAGA movement that has now consumed the GOP and replaced all “rational” Republicans.
According to Hutchinson, the Trump administration knew the protesters were heavily armed, but Trump cared more about his crowd size. Indeed, she said, Trump embraced and welcomed his own personal army. “I don’t fucking care that they have weapons,” was Trump’s response, according to Hutchinson. “They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking [metal detectors] away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.” These are the same protesters who the Republican National Committee earlier this year said were “ordinary citizens” engaged in a “legitimate political discourse.” Per Hutchinson’s testimony, Trump and his staff, including Meadows, who at worst comes off as a neutered, pathetic accomplice or at best a deliberate conspirator, were told early on that some were fastening spears to flagpoles and others were carrying AR-15s, the murder weapon of choice for mass shooters. They did more than march. The violent insurrectionists eventually overtook the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer, and terrorized the Capitol police and our elected officials.
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Violence was the recurring character in Hutchinson’s mesmerizing testimony. According to her, Trump, yet again, threw his own vice president, Mike Pence, under the bus and thought he “deserved” the chants of “Hang him!” Trump left Pence to be potentially slaughtered by his rabid cult, who were going to punish Pence for fulfilling his duty and certifying a fair and free election. Trump even allegedly assaulted Bobby Engel, the head of his Secret Service detail, and lunged for the steering wheel after Engel refused to drive him to the U.S. Capitol. Trump apparently lacked “the stamina” to march with the violent mob he incited, but he was fine being chauffeured to the insurrection. After being informed by his attorney general that there was no evidence of voter fraud, Trump behaved like an unruly spoiled child, according to Hutchinson, by throwing a plate of food against the wall, which was cleaned up by Hutchinson, who at the age of 25 was clearly the most mature adult in the room.
Hutchinson’s testimony indicts Trump’s staff, who apparently knew they were all engaging in illegal activity but nonetheless persisted to placate the whims of an unhinged vulgarian. Specifically, Meadows seems at most risk after the hearing. “Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,” Hutchinson said he warned her, but all the evidence shows he went along like a dutiful soldier and obeyed orders, even, thankfully, keeping a record of his texts, which included correspondence with Ginni Thomas, another true believer.
“Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cass,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged Hutchinson, according to her testimony. “We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable.” No wonder Meadows and Rudy Giuliani allegedly asked for a blanket pardon, joining a growing list of Trump acolytes.
Those crimes, according to my tally, now include obstruction, seditious conspiracy, assault, and fraud (Trump allegedly misled MAGA to give him $250 million to fight election fraud, which he never did). The hearing concluded with threatening messages the Trump administration allegedly sent to witnesses encouraging loyalty and promising rewards that read as if they came out of a bad Godfather ripoff. We can add witness tampering as another potential crime.
But perhaps the greatest crime is the GOP’s cowardice and utter lack of patriotism. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity knew the coup was dangerous and reckless, as per their text messages and alleged statements, yet they have only nurtured, normalized, and strengthened the MAGA radicalized cult with more fear, disinformation, and lies. Instead of standing up to Trump and the big lie, a majority of Republicans, who barely escaped with their lives on Jan. 6, proceeded to vote against certifying the election that day. Now a majority of GOP voters believe in the big lie, and more than 100 Republicans who have won their primary since May support it as well.
At a local level, the GOP is committed to the “precinct strategy” and is using an army of right-wing activists to disrupt elections across the country in which they lose.
They are also counting on a radicalized and unleashed Supreme Court to help them suppress votes and dilute the voting power of Black Americans, as witnessed in Tuesday’s decision to reinstate Louisiana's congressional district map, which was initially struck down for racial bias. They are counting on Republican-controlled state legislatures to follow through with John Eastman’s “bullshit” legal strategy and claims of fraud to reject electors and replace them with a fake slate of their own.
If all these anti-democratic efforts fail, I fear the base will rationalize the use of violence to achieve its goals. A November PRRI poll revealed that a third of Republicans believe violence might be necessary “in order to save the country.” One of the most terrifying moments from this hearing was a video of Gen. Michael Flynn pleading the Fifth when asked under oath whether he believes violence on Jan. 6 was justified. He said that after pondering the question with his attorney for over a minute. He further declined to say whether he believes in the peaceful transfer of power. Flynn, a hero of MAGA, is more representative of the present and future of the GOP than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and McCarthy, whose leadership will gladly rally around Trump and vote for him if he runs in 2024.
However, even if Trump is discarded and replaced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the threat to our democracy and rights remains. Trumpism is here to stay and it has completely infected the GOP. Just look at the House Judiciary GOP. Instead of responding with outrage and shock to Hutchinson’s horrifying testimony, the House Judiciary GOP’s Twitter account tweeted mockery and snark instead. Apparently, a hearing about a violent insurrection against our democracy is a great opportunity to shitpost and own the libs.
If the GOP continues down its radicalized and weaponized path, our democracy will lay in tatters beside the broken porcelain plate, and blood will be dripping down the walls alongside the ketchup.
