Image Credit: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images 
The January 6 Committee’s eighth public hearing Thursday produced testimony that there was a “heated discussion” between then-President Donald Trump and the Secret Service during the Capitol riot — not that Trump tried to seize the wheel of the presidential vehicle.
The testimony was a significant step back from claims last month by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson — based on hearsay — that Trump had tried to wrest control of the vehicle from the Secret Service.
Hutchinson’s claimed were immediately disputed by the Secret Service agents she named, Tony Ornato and Bobby Engel. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) cited Ornato claiming in an earlier interview that Trump had been “irate.” She did not mention Hutchinson’s claims.
Rep. Luria then cited another witness, retired D.C. Metro Police Sergeant Mark Robinson, who was not in the vehicle with Trump but was in the motorcade. Sgt. Robinson — who could only offer hearsay evidence — said on video that he heard that the president was “upset” and that there had been a “heated argument or discussion about going to the Capitol.”