June 28, 2022

Explosive January 6 Testimony: Trump Wanted Armed Supporters to March to the Capitol

“They’re not here to hurt me.”

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is sworn in to testify.Mother Jones; Andrew Harnik/CNP/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

A Trump White House aide testified to the January 6 committee today that the former president was aware that some of his supporters in Washington, DC, that day were armed with weapons ranging from spears to AR-15s, and that he directed them to the Capitol anyway. 

According to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, the Secret Service reportedly warned both the president and Meadows that some people attempting to enter Trump’s Stop the Steal rally on the Ellipse were armed with guns. According to Hutchinson, when informed about the situation, Meadows didn’t look up from his phone. 

Trump, on the other hand, went so far as to instruct the Secret Service to take away “the mags”—or magnetometers—and to allow the armed attendees into the rally. According to Hutchinson, Trump was worried about crowd size and wanted to admit as many people in as possible. 

According to Hutchinson, Trump said something to the effect of, “I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.”

Then, during the rally, Trump directed protesters—some of whom he allegedly knew were armed—to march on the Capitol. 

We’ve known for awhile that some of the pro-Trump extremists in DC that day were armed. In an exclusive investigation last year, Mother Jones drew on “public video footage, congressional testimony, and documents from more than a dozen federal criminal cases” to reveal that “various Trump supporters descended on DC that day armed for battle with guns and other potentially lethal weapons.” But Hutchinson’s testimony was the first indication that Trump knew that the attendees were armed before he sent them to the Capitol. 

Watch our September 2021 video investigation, below:

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate