Trump offered Jan. 7 remarks amid fears of 25th amendment: Hutchinson

Former President Trump gave a recorded address on Jan. 7, 2021, in which he acknowledged he would leave office and condemned violence at the Capitol under pressure from a group of White House advisers, former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified Tuesday. 

Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riots that Trump initially resisted giving a speech the day after the attack on the Capitol. 

Ultimately, a group of White House aides convinced Trump it was necessary to say something both to condemn the violence and to quell talk of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office before the end of his term, Hutchinson said. 

That group included Meadows; former White House senior advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the then-president’s daughter and son-in-law; former White House lawyers Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann and Patrick Philbin; and former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. 

But, Hutchinson testified, Trump did not agree with certain parts of the speech that was drafted for him. 

She said there were “several lines that didn’t make it in there about prosecuting the rioters or calling them violent.” 

“He didn’t want that in there. He wanted to put in there that he wanted to potentially pardon them,” she said. “This is just with the increased emphasis of his mindset at the time, which was he didn’t think they did anything wrong. The person who did something wrong that day was Mike Pence.”

In the address, Trump ultimately said a new administration would take office on Jan. 20, 2021, and he said those who broke the law on Jan. 6 would face consequences.