Remember when Trump revealed his truth about what happened in his Presidential SUV on January 6th?
Donald Trump has shared a lot of stories about what occurred on January 6th from his point of view, but few of those accounts were as interesting as what he said happened during a campaign rally in May 2024.
Trump admitted that he did ask Secret Service agents to take him back to the Capitol on January 6th in a bizarre retelling of the day's events during a campaign rally. This was something that had long been speculated about by the media.
The tale of what happened inside a vehicle between the former president and his Secret Service detail has been shrouded in uncertainty ever since the story was told by an aide of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Cassidy Hutchison was a top aide under Meadows and she testified at the House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack that Trump asked his Secret Service detail to take him to the Capitol while the assault was unfolding.
NBC News reported Hutchison detailed the many outbursts Trump had on January 6th and made it seem as if the former president supported the Capitol attack. But there was one story that stuck out and took over the narrative.
Trump allegedly burst into anger in his presidential vehicle after his Secret Service detail refused to bring him back to the Capitol. “I am the f---ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,” Hutchison testified Trump said according to conversations he had had with others.
The former president allegedly attempted to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle from the back seat of the car and got into a fight with one of his bodyguards which eventually led to Trump grabbing the bodyguard's throat.
Hutchison’s testimony was refuted by sources close to Tony Ornato, the Secret Service official that she claimed provided her with the details about what happened in Trump's presidential vehicle, and by a March 2023 report.
The March 2023 report was undertaken by the U.S. House Administration Committee of Oversight, a body led by House Republicans according to The Guardian, and it revealed that Hutchison’s claims could not be corroborated.
“None of the White House employees corroborated Hutchinson’s sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast,” the report read, using the nickname for the cars that move the president.
However, the former president himself may have revealed there might be more truth to Hutchison’s testimony than we thought according to comments he made during a crowd during a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
“I sat in the back, and you know what I did say? I said, ‘I’d like to go down there, ‘cause I see a lot of people walking down,’” Trump told the crowd according to Rolling Stone. "And they said, ‘Sir, it’s better if you don’t.’ I said, ‘Well, I’d like to.’ ‘Sir, it’s better if you don’t.'”
“Remember the person that said I attacked a Secret Service agent in the front of the car? It’s not my deal. I’m a lover, not a fighter,” Trump told his supporters gathered in a remark that seemed to be a dig at Hutchison.
“Remember that? And these are tough guys. You know these Secret Service guys, I hate to admit it, they’re slightly younger than me. Just slightly,” Trump went on to say, and while he didn’t reveal that Hutchison’s story was real, what he did say was worrying.
Those involved in the incident have stated that Trump said he wanted to go back to the Capitol on January 6th. However, now the world has confirmation from Trump that he did indeed ask his Secret Service agents to take him back to the Capitol.
It’s important to note that details of the incident were revealed by the unnamed driver of the vehicle. Transcripts of their comments were released alongside the March 2023 report into January 6th and they revealed what they saw happen.
“The president was insistent on going to the Capitol. It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol,” the driver said. “He was not screaming at me. Certainly, his voice was raised, but it did not seem to me that he was irate.”
“The driver had also said Trump never lunged for the wheel” but rather reported what “stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than his physical presence.” But now we know that from that he did indeed ask to return to the Capitol on January 6th.
What really happened inside Trump's SUV on January 6th will likely never be known, but at least the country got a little closer to the truth of the former president's actions that day following his revelations in May.