Presidential Motorcade Director Describes Trump's Behavior on Jan. 6: 'It Was a Heated Argument'

Virginia Chamlee
·3 min read
A video of President Trump's motorcade leaving the January 6th rally on the Ellipse is displayed as Cassidy Hutchinson, former Special Assistant to President Trump, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.
A video of President Trump's motorcade leaving the January 6th rally on the Ellipse is displayed as Cassidy Hutchinson, former Special Assistant to President Trump, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.
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SHAWN THEW/POOL/AFP via Getty Trump motorcade

In the wake of White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's shocking testimony that former President Donald Trump lunged at his Secret Service detail in the car in an attempt to reach the Capitol on Jan. 6, a retired D.C. police officer who was in the front car of the presidential convoy that day said he remembers Trump's insistence on getting to the building.

"We've heard it several times while it was on the motorcade," Mark Robinson, a driver in the convoy, told CNN Monday said Robinson. "I think during the speech, shortly thereafter, he had finished the speech, that the president was getting into the motorcade and he was upset. And he adamantly wanted to go to the Capitol."

Robinson continued: "And even when we departed from the Ellipse it was repeated again. … It was a heated argument in the limo. And he wanted to definitely go to the Capitol."

RELATED: Reagan's Secret Service Supervisor Says a President Lunging at Security Detail Is Unheard Of: 'Mind Boggling'

Like Hutchinson, Robinson is also a witness for the House committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol that day.

Huthcinson, a former top aide to Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, testified to the committee in June that Trump was so intent on going to the U.S. Capitol while vote-counting was taking place on Jan. 6, 2021, that he tried to take control of the wheel in his own presidential limousine and then physically assaulted his chief of security when told he could not go to the building.

As Hutchinson explained, that shortly after his fiery speech to supporters on Jan. 6 — in which he called on the crowd to "march" to the Capitol and said he would go with them — Trump got inside a presidential vehicle to leave the area.

A video of former President Donald Trump's motorcade leaving Trump's January 6th rally on the Ellipse is played as Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence for almost a year related to the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building during an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for President Joe Biden.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty

While he had expressed an interest in traveling to the Capitol, his security was against the idea. So Trump, Hutchinson testified under oath, took matters into his own hands, reaching for the steering wheel with one hand and "reaching for the clavicle" of his lead Secret Service agent with another.

While she said she did not know what Trump planned to do once he got to the Capitol, she said those close to him, including Perry, were engaged in "discussions about him having another speech outside the Capitol," and "discussions about him going into the House Chamber at one point."

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The Secret Service, Hutchinson said, "scrambled" to come up with a way to take Trump to the Capitol, but ultimately determined it would be too dangerous.

Others who testified to the committee — including Nick Luna and Max Miller — backed up Hutchinson's assertion that Trump had expressed interest in potentially marching or driving down to the Capitol.

RELATED: Capitol Police Officer Testifies About the 'Carnage' of Jan. 6: 'I Was Slipping in People's Blood'

As Robinson told CNN this week, Trump actually getting to the Capitol could have been disastrous.

"Now knowing what actually happened, that would've been horrible. Had the motorcade responded to the Capitol, I think, would've just been far worse," Robinson said. "I think it would have probably encouraged more rioting. And [the rioters would've] felt supported. If the presidential motorcade came in support of them. So I think the insurrectionists probably would have felt as though they had the support of the President."