Driver recalls Trump asking to go to Capitol on Jan. 6, but didn't see lunge for the wheel

Donald Trump's driver on Jan. 6, 2021 said Trump asked to go to the Capitol, but he didn't see the then-president lunge for the wheel that day, according to a New York Times report.

The Times said it had reviewed a transcript of the driver's interview with the House Select Committee that released a report in December of 2022 on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol. The interview was discussed in a Republican-led House Administration Oversight Subcommittee report released Monday that criticized the work of the select committee. The full transcript wasn't included in that Monday report.

The oversight subcommittee criticized the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchison. She testified before the Jan. 6 committee that she was told Trump not only demanded to go to the Capitol after his "Stop the Steal" rally, but that he actually reached for the wheel.

The new Republican-led report homed in on how the driver and other personnel hadn't substantiated the story about the wheel.

The driver said, "I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all," according to the new report.

The New York Times made clear, however, that the driver had substantiated that Trump expressed wanting to go to the Capitol.

“The president was insistent on going to the Capitol,” the driver, whose name was not disclosed, said. “It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol... He was not screaming at me. Certainly his voice was raised, but it did not seem to me that he was irate — certainly not, certainly didn’t seem as irritated or agitated as he had on the way to the Ellipse.”

"Despite the driver of the President’s SUV testifying under oath that the Hutchinson story was false, the Select Committee chose to validate and promote Hutchinson’s version of the story as fact," the oversight subcommittee said.

Hutchinson's testimony

Hutchinson testified in 2022 that Tony Ornato, Trump's deputy chief of staff, shared the story of what Trump did in the SUV based on what Ornato said he had heard from Robert Engel, the head of Trump's Secret Service detail. Ornato and Engel later disputed Hutchinson's account. Both men were attacked by other former Trump aides who broke with Trump as having a history of untruthfulness.

In its report, the Jan. 6 committee did highlight Hutchinson's testimony to hearing of "a struggle in the President’s car," but also acknowledged it was difficult to fully reconcile information from Engel and Ornato with other witness accounts.

"But the principal factual point here is clear and undisputed: President Trump specifically and repeatedly requested to be taken to the Capitol," the Jan. 6 committee said.

Trump claims vindication

Trump claimed vindication Monday on the John Solomon Reports podcast, saying the story about the wheel may in fact be impossible because of obstructions in the SUV.

"The story was false and so ridiculous," Trump said. “I don't even know if you'd be able to do it, because they have a lot of things in between the drivers and the back, you know, like steel."

Trump did admit asking the Secret Service to go to the Capitol, but said they indicated they weren't prepared to do it safely and he accepted that response.

"I said, I think, let's go down to the Capitol. And the Secret Service very nicely 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,” he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump asked to go to Capitol on Jan. 6 but didn't lunge, driver says