Liz Cheney says she's 'absolutely confident' in Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony as Trump tries to undermine the former aide's credibility
- Liz Cheney said she is "absolutely confident" in the credibility of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
- Trump and his allies have torn into Hutchinson in the wake of her testimony before the January 6 committee.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said she is "absolutely confident" in former top Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the House January 6 committee.
"I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I'm confident in her testimony," Cheney told ABC News's Jonathan Karl in a portion of an interview that will air in full later this weekend.
Cheney, who is the top Republican on the panel investigating the insurrection, added that Hutchinson displayed "an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage" in publicly testifying about what she observed as a top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Hutchinson made a number of shocking claims, including that then-President Donald Trump expressed approval for rioters who chanted that they wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence as they stormed the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's electoral votes.
She also said Trump was not worried about attendees carrying weapons at his January 6, 2021, rally, and wanted the Secret Service to remove metal detectors at the venue.
"I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, '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,'" Hutchinson told the January 6 committee.
The former president has denied a litany of Hutchinson's claims, including that he was OK with people brandishing weapons at his rally.
The most intense focus has been on Hutchinson's claim that Trump, in a furious final effort to go to the Capitol himself, lunged at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV he was riding in and grabbed at the throat of a Secret Service agent. Hutchinson said she was told this by deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent who temporarily became a political aide in the Trump White House.
Publicly, the Secret Service has said that agents are prepared to testify before the January 6 committee. Privately, former agents have also questioned whether Trump could have actually pulled this off. Unnamed sources have also told multiple news outlets that agents would dispute that the president lunged for the wheel and that he put his hands on an agent.
Hutchinson's legal team has said that she stands by her testimony.
"Ms. Hutchinson testified, under oath, and recounted what she was told," Jody Hunt, a former chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and now one of Hutchinson's lawyers, wrote on Twitter. "Those with knowledge of the episode also should testify under oath."
In the meantime, Trump and his allies have continued to blast Hutchinson. In a post on Wednesday night, the former president called Hutchinson a "fake storyteller" who is now "totally discredited and marginalized."
Cheney spoke to Karl in California, where she spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. A frequent stop for future presidential aspirants, Cheney tore into the former president.
"It is undeniable — the Republican Party cannot be both loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution. We must choose," Cheney said during her speech.