Cassidy Hutchinson’s powerful testimony to the January 6 committee gave the clearest account yet of Donald Trump as an unhinged, lawless president, Carl Bernstein says.
“She gave a picture of a Mad King,” the legendary Watergate journalist told CNN on Tuesday night.
“The whole idea is now absolutely confirmed, proven, he is a criminal and a seditious president of the United States.”
Ms Hutchinson, a senior aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave a first-hand account of the run-up to the US Capitol riots on Tuesday at a surprise hearing of the select committee probing the insurrection.
She testified that Mr Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limousine in an effort to go to the Capitol to join his supporters and ignored the warnings of his chief of staff who said things could get “real, real bad”.
Her testimony has drawn widespread praise from commentators and politicians, and prompted a series of bizarre denials from Mr Trump on Truth Social.
Mr Bernstein told CNN there was now a “legal, moral and political case” to prosecute Mr Trump and the supporters who have “gone along with his criminalty”.
“One of the big questions is how are some of these Republicans going to explain their silence.”
Ms Hutchinson also told the panel that Mr Trump threw his lunch against the wall when his then-attorney general Bill Barr knocked down claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.
