BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — At Tuesday’s last minute Jan. 6 panel hearing, Cassidy Hutchinson — a top aide to former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows — testified that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) called her during Trump’s speech to his supporters at the Ellipse just before the attack.
“He sounded rushed but also frustrated and angry at me. I was confused because I didn’t know what the President had just said. He [McCarthy] then explained ‘the president just said he’s marching to the Capitol. You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here, why would you lie to me?” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said McCarthy was adamant about the then-President not coming to the Capitol. The former aide said she assured McCarthy Trump wasn’t coming and she would send the Bakersfield Congressman a text to confirm.
“And he said ‘well, he just said it on stage. Cassidy. Figure it out, don’t come up here,” Hutchinson said.
The hearing also included a clip of McCarthy during a CBS interview as the attack was unfolding on Jan. 6.
“I completely condemn the violence at the Capitol. What we are watching unfold is un-American,” McCarthy said in the interview. “I am disappointed, I’m sad, this is not what our country should look like, this is not who we are. This is not the first amendment.”
Tuesday’s testimony comes as McCarthy has been under the heat from Trump over his decision a year ago to pull all five of his Republican picks off the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his choices.
“Bad decision not to have representation on that committee,” Trump said in an interview with Wayne Allyn Root.
McCarthy defended his decision on Fox News Monday, arguing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not have accepted Republicans who did not reflect her perspective.
“If Pelosi was picking which Republicans were on there and her first pick was Liz Cheney, who do you think she was going to let on otherwise?” McCarthy said. “The right decision was the decision I made.”
Read More: Aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Kevin McCarthy called her on Jan. 6