Attorney General Bill Barr’s declaration in an interview with The Associated Press that the 2020 election was free of widespread fraud enraged President Donald Trump so much that he threw his lunch against the wall, an aide testified on Tuesday.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, revealed the president’s rageful reaction at an explosive hearing in which she outlined how the White House knew at the highest levels that violence was not just possible but likely on January 6 days before they went through with an effort to overturn the election.
“There was ketchup dripping down the wall” where Mr Trump’s meal had impacted the side of the dining room, Ms Hutchinson testified.
A White House valet “articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general’s AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall” in response, she added.
The attorney general’s public assertion that the results of the 2020 election could not have been changed by fraud was a major blow to Mr Trump’s efforts to convince the general public that such fraud had occurred, and resulted in his victory being “stolen” by now-President Joe Biden.
Mr Trump and his team had been actively engaged in pressuring the Justice Department to make a statement to the contrary for weeks, which led to the attorney general’s somewhat rare public remarks.
Tuesday’s hearing featured testimony from Ms Hutchinson, a high-ranking White House aide who worked for chief of staff Mark Meadows and testified that much of her day-to-day activities mirrored those of Mr Meadows and by extension his boss.
Ms Hutchinson made a number of damning revelations on Tuesday. But perhaps none more so than the startling admission that her boss, Mr Meadows, had privately confided to her that things “could get real, real bad” on January 6, a prediction he made just days before the attack on Congress.
Despite that knowledge the president’s team went forward with efforts to overturn the 2020 election through illegal interference in the certification of the Electoral College vote, which ended when Vice President Mike Pence refused to take part.
