A fuming Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the Secret Service limo after he was told he couldn't join supporters moving on the US Capitol.
Speaking to the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 attack, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described Trump's actions after he finished a speech at the Ellipse outside the White House where he exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol.
Trump wanted to join the protesters at the seat of government, where lawmakers were meeting to certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory over the Republican Trump in the 2020 election, she said.
"I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now," Hutchinson quoted Trump as saying to Secret Service agents.
When he got into the limo, nicknamed "the Beast", he was told they would not be going to the Capitol.
A Secret Service agent had to physically restrain Trump who, sitting in the back seat, used his free hand to lunge toward the neck of another Secret Service agent Robert Engel, Hutchinson testified.
"Mr Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel," she testified.
Trump denied her account in a social media post. He said he never tried to grab the steering wheel.
"Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is 'sick' and fraudulent," he wrote on his Truth Social account.
He also denied Hutchinson's testimony that he threw food and plates at the White House on several occasions.
Many Republicans - including Trump and Republican Representative Louie Gohmert - have said the rioters were not armed, but Hutchinson's testimony contradicted this claim.
She testified that both Meadows and Trump knew many in the crowd were armed with AR-15s, handguns, brass knuckles and batons and equipped with body armour.
Trump was irate that many rally attendees were having to go through metal detectors, a standard security procedure for people near the president, because it gave the appearance of fewer people attending the rally.
"They're not here to hurt me," Hutchinson recalled Trump as saying. "Let them in, let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rally's over."
Hutchinson also testified that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone told her on January 3, 2021, that it would be "legally a terrible idea" for Trump to go to the Capitol on January 6.
"He said to me, 'We need to make sure that this doesn't happen," Hutchinson testified. "'We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.'"
According to video testimony shown on Tuesday by the committee from Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's White House press secretary at the time, Trump was so enraged by then-Attorney General Bill Barr's interview saying there was no evidence of election fraud that he threw his lunch at the wall, breaking a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall.
"There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere," Hutchinson told the committee.
