(RepublicanInformer.com)- The very public hearings the House select committee that is investigating the attacks on January 6, 2021, are conducting were already damaging to former President Donald Trump.
Then came Tuesday’s hearing, at which Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, revealed chilling details of what she said amounted to the former president helping to plan the attacks, knowing that violence was occurring and then doing nothing to dissuade it.
One of the stories Hutchinson told was a second-hand account from someone inside Trump’s presidential limousine. The president wanted to march with his supporters to the U.S. Capitol building, and when that was denied, he wanted Secret Service members to drive him there so he could join the crowd.
When Secret Service told him that it wasn’t safe to do so, Trump apparently screamed at the driver, tried to grab the wheel and cursed at him for not obeying his orders.
In the wake of the stunning testimony by Hutchinson on Tuesday, advisers to the former president are now saying they are very worried about the path forward for Trump. As one aide commented:
“This is a bombshell. It’s stunning. It’s shocking. The story about ‘The Beast’ — I don’t have words. It’s just stunning.
“This paints a picture of Trump completely unhinged and completely losing all control which, for his base, they think of him as someone who is in command at all times. This completely flies in the face of that.”
The hearings are causing a lot of concern not just within Trump’s inner circle, but also among several of the top operatives within the GOP, which includes activists and donors. They are all apparently concerned about Trump’s viability as a candidate going forward.
While Trump’s base is unlikely to be swayed too much by the hearings, there are many others who are apparently growing tired by all the drama, according to a recent Politico report.
Dan Eberhart, a donor to the GOP, told the media outlet:
“Trump is facing an important onslaught of negative facts with these hearings and there is no real defense. He has no friendly members on the committee, and there aren’t facts to put in front of the public to make any of this sound less bad.”
And those comments were made before Hutchinson gave her testimony.
The obvious beneficiary of Trump’s potential downfall — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has long been considered one of Trump’s biggest potential challengers in the GOP primary.
Eberhart commented on the situation by saying:
“Ron DeSantis is lying in wait sharpening his knives.”
And the Trump aide who spoke to CNN following Tuesday’s hearing said:
“This is basically a campaign commercial for Ron DeSantis 2024.”
One of DeSantis’ advisers spoke to Politico, saying that while the hearings aren’t being viewed as a “nail in the coffin” for the re-election prospects for Trump, they are indeed a “useful distraction” that could make his bid for the GOP nomination less appealing to many of the high-ranking operatives within the Republican Party.
