election period. director radcliffe felt that it wasn t something that the white house should be pursuing. it felt it was dangerous for the president s legacy. he had expressed to me that he was concerned that it could spiral out of control. and potentially be dangerous either for our democracy or with the way that things were going for the 6th. when you say it wasn t something the white house should be pursuing, what s the it? trying to fight the results of the election, finding missing ballots, pressuring filing lawsuits in certain states where
reaction. i remember him saying all right. something to the effect of how much longer does the president have left in his speech? again, much of this information about the potential for violence was known or learned before the onset of the violence. early enough for president trump to take steps to prevent it. he could, for example, have urged the crowd at the ellipse not to march to the capitol. he could have condemned the violence immediately once it began, or he could have taken multiple other steps. but as we will see today and in later hearings, president trump had something else in mind. one other question at this point, miss hutchinson, were you aware of concerns that white house counsel pat scipollone had there were many discussions
knew everything because she knew who was trying to get in touch with mark meadows, who was speaking to trump. as she has testified privately, who was asking for a pardon for january 6. she was there in trump s office on january 6. those are big questions that people are looking to see what it is that she reveals today. someone else that i spoke with in trump s world said it is not good she is testifying and they don t expect it to portray the former president in a positive light. obviously this has caught the former president and his world offguard when it was abruptly scheduled yesterday so they are going to be watching closely to see what it is she is going to testify and potentially, jake, how damaging it could be given just how much she knows about what happened in those final few months in trump s time in office. kaitlin collins, thanks so much. let s go to pamela brown who joins us from capitol hill. pamela, just how close was cassidy hutchinson to her boss,
new information that is both urgent and important. the panel has not revealed any details publicly, but cnn has confirmed through sources that cassidy hutchhutchinson, who wa top aide to white house chief of staff mark meadows will testify today live. hutchinson is considered to be one of the panel s most consequential witnesses due to her proximity to the white house chief of staff, mark meadows, before and on january 6. hutchinson has been interviewed by the select committee at least three times before behind closed doors. clips from those recorded interviews were played during previous hearings. we saw cassidy hutchinson testify on many different parts of then president trump s efforts to overturn the election. remember, this was not just about the mob that stormed the capitol on january 6, it was about various other trump schemes to undermine the democratic election. for example, hutchinson testified to the committee that mark meldadows and rudy giulian were involved in early
with pat late in the afternoon of the 3rd or the 4th. that pat was concerned it would look like we were obstructing justice or obstructing the electoral college count. i apologize for not being probably very firm with my legal terms here, but that it would look like we were obstructing what was happening on capitol hill, and he was also worried that it would look like we were inciting a riot or encouraging a riot to erupt on the capitol, at the capitol. in fact, in the days before january 6th, and on january 6th itself, president trump expressed to multiple white house aides that he wanted to go to the capitol after his speech. here s what various white house aides have told the committee about the president s desire to go to the capitol.