Rep. Ruben Gallego said a White House aide's testimony shows police were 'sent to be potentially slaughtered' by Trump

• Rep. Ruben Gallego says police were 'sent to be slaughtered' on Jan. 6 by Trump.

• An ex-aide testified that Trump knew there were not enough police at the US capitol.

• Gallego said the testimony of the former WH aide has shown Trump's involvement in the Jan 6 insurrection.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego said that 'US Capitol Police officers were sent to be potentially slaughtered' on January 6 after a former White House staffer testified that former President Donald Trump knew that protesters were armed and that there was not enough security at the US Capitol building.

"If it wasn't because of this brave 25-year-old woman, we wouldn't even know what was happening," the Arizona lawmaker told reporters at the hearing on Thursday, referring to Cassidy Hutchinson. "This is a very sad moment in our country right now."

Gallego, a former US Marine who instructed fellow lawmakers in how to don gas masks during the Capitol attack, was one of several witnesses to the attack in the Cannon Caucus room who expressed shock at the aide's sworn account of that day.

Video: Biggest reveals from Jan. 6 hearings thus far

His remarks came after Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that Trump and his White House advisers were informed that protesters on the National Mall were armed and heading to the US Capitol building on Jan. 6 where lawmakers were formalizing the victory of Trump's political opponent.

In gripping testimony before the House Jan. 6 select committee, Hutchinson testified that Meadows and Trump seemed indifferent about the armed and angry crowd and that Trump was "furious" that the crowd area for his speech wasn't filled with people, which he attributed to metal detectors that would deter people carrying weapons.

At one point, she recalled Trump saying, "I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in; they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in."

During that same period, she also recalled the White House staffers being informed that there was not enough security on Capitol Hill to handle the hundreds of protesters making their way into the building.

US Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell told Insider that he felt betrayed after hearing Hutchinson recount how Trump and his staffers knew that the Capitol Police were outnumbered and how Trump wanted to march with his supporters.

"Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know, he still didn't do anything to help us," he told Insider. "We wanted to lead the crowd according to the evidence put out today."

Gonell was one of the many officers injured during the January 6 insurrection while attempting to stop the pro-Trump supporters from forcing their way into the US Capitol. An Army veteran who served in Iraq, Gonnell testified in 2021 before the same committee thinking, as he struggled to breath from the crowd's press: "This is how I'm going to die."

More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the insurrection.

Read the original article on Business Insider