OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap after a Secret Service driver of the presidential limousine refuted a narrative involving an alleged incident during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
On Monday, Trump declared vindication following the release of new evidence by Congress that undermined two sensational claims made by Democrats during the Jan. 6 investigation. The claims included the assertion that he attempted to seize his Secret Service vehicle that day to travel to the Capitol and the allegation that he never proposed National Guard troops for additional protection before the fateful event.
“These were made-up, fabricated stories,” Trump told Just the News.
Trump spoke a few hours after the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, presided over by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., released transcripts and other evidence in an interim report concluding that the Democrat-run House Select Committee on Jan. 6 withheld from the public evidence that contradicted its conclusions.
Just the News added:
That evidence included an interview with the Secret Service driver of the presidential SUV, who directly contradicted former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, the Democrats’ star witness during their 2022 nationally televised hearing, and disputed her claim Trump tried to grab the wheel of the presidential car known as “The Beast” and tried to strangle a Secret Service agent in a desperate effort to get his detail to go the Capitol where the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was happening.
Trump has always denied the account, and Loudermilk’s report released parts of testimony from multiple Secret Service and White House officials that directly undercut the claims of Hutchinson and the conclusions of the Democrat-led investigation released in December 2022.
“Well, the story was false and so ridiculous that I would grab these young, strong guys,” Trump told Just the News’ John Solomon.
He added that the story could never have been true because there were protective barriers inside the presidential SUV limo that prevented him from reaching the driver’s seat.
“I don’t even know if you’d be able to do it because they have a lot of things in between the driver and the back, you know, like steel, then various other things. And I would imagine it would be very hard to do. But the whole concept of me doing it, these were made-up fabricated stories. And they got tremendous play,” he said.
Trump did say he asked the Secret Service about going to the Capitol Building after his speech at the Ellipse but agents told him they did not have the security in place to do so, Just the News reported.
“I said, I think, let’s go down to the Capitol. And the Secret Service was very nice and said, ‘Sir, really better for you to go back to the White House. It really is, you know, we’re not prepared to go down there.’ And I understood that, and it was no big argument,” he said.
Trump pointed fingers at the leaders of the Democrat-controlled Congress for perpetuating false narratives, citing reports from Loudermilk’s committee that indicated certain evidence and transcripts were either deleted, transferred to other agencies, or password-protected to prevent the American people from accessing the truth.
“Well, they actually did destroy evidence. They deleted evidence,” he said.
“These are really sick people,” Trump added. “You know, I talk about the enemy from within and the enemy from without; the enemy on the outside and the enemy on the inside. And I’ll tell you what, in many ways, the enemy on the inside is far more dangerous than China and Russia.
“And all of it, these are really bad people. And actually, they are insurrectionists. When you see things like you’ve found out today and over the last couple of weeks, they really are insurrectionists,” he added.
