'He adamantly wanted to go to the Capitol': Motorcade officer confirms Trump’s 'heated' Secret Service scuffle

02 August 2022

Mark Robinson, a retired Washington, D.C. police officer, was part of then-President Donald Trump’s motorcade in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. During a Monday, August 1 appearance on CNN, Robinson recalled Trump’s actions that day — saying that Trump was “upset” that he was unable to join his supporters when they marched from the Ellipse to the U.S. Capitol Building.

Robinson told CNN host Don Lemon, “We’ve heard it several times while it was on the motorcade. I think during the speech, shortly thereafter, he had finished the speech, that the president was getting into the motorcade and he was upset. And he adamantly wanted to go to the Capitol. And even when we departed from the Ellipse, it was repeated again.... It was a heated argument in the limo. And he wanted to definitely go to the Capitol.”

HuffPost reporter Marita Vlachou, in an article published on August 2, notes that Robinson’s comments on CNN “appear to be consistent with White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony that Trump got into a physical altercation with his Secret Service detail on January 6, and tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limousine in the hope of driving to the Capitol.”

When Hutchinson publicly testified before the January 6 select committee, she said that although Trump wanted to march to the Capitol, members of the U.S. Secret Service insisted that he return to the White House.

Hutchinson testified, “The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. (Secret Service agent Bobby) Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’”

During his CNN appearance, Robinson argued that on January 6, 2021, the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building might have been even worse had Trump been allowed to march with his supporters.

Robinson told Lemon, “I think it would have probably encouraged more rioting. And (the rioters would have) felt supported. If the presidential motorcade came in support of them.... I think the insurrectionists probably would have felt as though they had the support of the president.”

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