Hutchinson: 'Large concern' about 25th Amendment being invoked in final days of Trump presidency
Appearing before the Jan. 6 House select committee, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that following the attack on the U.S. Capitol, there were discussions among Cabinet members to remove Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment.
Video Transcript
LIZ CHENEY: Sean Hannity apparently spoke with President Trump and warned him about what could happen. We understand that this text message that Sean Hannity sent to Kayleigh McEnany on January 7 shows what Mr Hannity said to the President. First, no more stolen election talk. Second, impeachment and 25th Amendment are real, many people will quit.
Ms. Hutchinson, you told us that you were hearing about discussions related to the 25th Amendment. Here's part of what you said.
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: Mr. Trump had to reach out to have the conversation with Mr. Meadows in case he hadn't heard the discussions amongst cabinet secretaries. And from what I understand, it was more of this what I'm hearing, I want you to be aware of it, but I also think it's worth putting on your radar because you are the Chief of Staff, you're technically the boss of all the cabinet secretaries. And if conversations progress, you should be ready to take action on this. I'm concerned for you and your positioning with this. You know, reach out to me if you have any questions or, like, I could be helpful with you at all.
LIZ CHENEY: Ms. Hutchinson do you recall discussions about the President's speech on January 7?
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: I do.
LIZ CHENEY: Let's listen, Ms. Hutchinson, to what you told us about that and about the process of crafting those remarks.
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: From what I understood at the time and from what the reports were coming in, there was a large concern of the 25th Amendment potentially being invoked and there were concerns about what would happen in the Senate if it was-- if the 25th was invoked. So the primary reason that I had heard, other than, we did not do enough on the 6th, we need to get a stronger message out there and condemn this, otherwise this will be your legacy. The secondary reason to that was, think about what might happen in the final 15 days of your presidency if we don't do this. There's already talks about invoking the 25th Amendment, you need this as cover.
