My readers were quick to send me suggestions yesterday during the January 6 Committee hearings where Cassidy Hutchinson was dropping one bombshell after another.

My readers wanted me to focus on Trump’s ketchup tantrum when he got mad over his attorney general Bill Barr’s public rejection of his election fraud claims. Or, they wanted me to draw something on him lunging at his Secret Service detail and trying to grab the steering wheel so he could go to the Capitol with his white nationalist terrorists and help them even further with his coup attempt. But, while those are fun, salacious, and important to note, and I really do hate ketchup, I don’t think they’re the main takeaway from yesterday’s hearing.

I think the biggest and most important revelation from yesterday’s hearing is that Donald Trump was told there were armed people in his insurrection mob of white nationalist terrorists, and he ordered his staff in profane terms to remove metal detectors he thought would slow down his angry pro-fascism supporters.

According to Hutchinson, upset that some in the crowd might not get to see him for his pre-insurrection speech, Trump said words to the effect of, “I don’t care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.” “Mags” refers to magnetometers.

Trump didn’t just tell his people to be in Washington to stop Congress from certifying the election, a duty mandated by the Constitution, he tried to clear the way for them to bring weapons. Many of these people were carrying knives, bear spray, metal poles, tasers, and guns.

Donald Trump was willing to let armed goons into his speech and proceed to attack the Capitol. He didn’t care if it endangered the lives of the Capitol Police, members of Congress, or even his own vice-president and his family. Donald Trump didn’t even care if his supporters were in danger, and one of the terrorists, Ashli Babbitt, was killed during the attack. Donald Trump didn’t care because they were not there to hurt him.

I could have drawn a cartoon of “treason,” “coup,” “insurrection,” or “sedition” on a wall in ketchup, or had Trump trying to choke someone with his tiny hands, and I would probably get more shares and reprints than for this cartoon, even though I’ve already seen a dozen cartoons of those concepts. But the ketchup and choking is not the stuff that’s going to put Trump in prison.

What should put Donald Trump in prison is trying to steal an election. He committed sedition and ordered his terrorist cult to attack. He obstructed Congress while it was doing an official duty. Donald Trump knew his people were armed and out to hurt his enemies and he goaded them. He called them out. He directed them. He told them to “walk to the Capitol.” Donald Trump is a traitor to this nation and Attorney General Merrick Garland needs to have the Department of Justice prosecute Donald Trump.

I don’t want to hear any of this shit about dividing the nation by prosecuting a former president (sic). The division and hate in this nation is the fault of Trump and his supporters. They tried to steal an election and they’re still lying about it. Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Donald Trump’s supporters.

We found out a whole lot of other salacious juicy shit on top of the ketchup tantrum from Ms. Hutchinson.

Cassidy Hutchinson was chief of staff Mark Meadows’ special assistant. People usually had to go through her to get to the chief of staff.

We learned that in his anger at being driven back to the White House instead of the Capitol, Trump uttered words to the effect of, “I am the fucking president. Take me up to the Capitol now” and grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle. Trump wanted to join his mob in entering the Capitol. Was he planning to enter the Senate chamber himself to stop the electoral certification for Joe Biden’s victory?

Maybe the Secret Service should have tried the trick that works when you take a dog to the veterinarian. Jingling the keys to the “Beast,” they could say, “C’mon, boy….wanna go for a ride? Who’s a good boy? Who wants a ride?” Sure, somewhere along the way, Trump may realize he’s not going in the direction of the park, or in his case, McDonald’s, but hell…you got him in the car.

We learned that on the morning of January 6, White House counsel Pat Cipollone cautioned Hutchinson that if Trump did go to the Capitol to intervene in the certification of the election, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.” She said Cipollone “was also worried that it would look like we were inciting a riot or encouraging a riot to happen up at the Capitol,”

We learned that Cipollone tried to persuade Meadows to get Trump to publicly call for an end to the rioting as parts of the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and Meadows replied with “something to the effect of, ‘You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.’”

After the Trump terrorists broke into the Capitol, Cipollone said to Meadows, “Mark, something needs to be done, or people are going to die and the blood’s gonna be on your fucking hands.”

We already knew that Mark Meadows was a weak chief-of-staff but we learned that he did very little to persuade Trump to stop the attack. We learned he never pushed back against Trump’s refusal to call off the terrorists. He’s also probably the one who gave Trump his ketchup.

We learned from committee member Liz Cheney that prospective witnesses for the committee received intimidating messages with one text reading, “[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you he wants you to know that you’re loyal and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in.” Gee, I wonder who that person was who was thinking about the witness.

An unidentified witness described receiving messages and said “What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceeded through my depositions and interviews with the committee.”

This is witness tampering. It’s a mob tactic. When they say “we know you’re loyal and will do the right thing,” the message is actually “If you talk, you’re sleeping with the fishes” or “we’re taking you for a ride, and not the fun kind of ride like when Trump’s taken to McDonald’s.”

We learned that members of Trump’s cabinet were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office after the attack.

We learned that Fox News’ Sean Hannity spoke with Trump on January 6 and told him his cabinet was considering removing him by invoking the 25th Amendment. We did not learn that from Sean Hannity despite the fact it would have been major news. We already knew Sean Hannity was more loyal to Trump than to giving his viewers the truth. Sean Hannity should be fired for this. He had a scoop in his hands and instead of reporting it, he called the subject and warned him. Fucking Sean Hannity.

We learned that Trump considered offering the terrorists a blanket pardon.

We learned that Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani (surprise) both wanted pardons.

We learned that Michael Flynn took the fifth multiple times, even when asked if there should be a peaceful transfer of power during presidential administrations.

I may come back and give you a ketchup cartoon, but I’m not going to merely write a statement on a wall in red. There’s more to gather from this than the fact Donald Trump is a big baby with temper tantrums. I already knew that.

The most important information we got yesterday wasn’t about ketchup, but that Donald Trump was willing for people to die in order to steal an election and make him a fascist dictator.

I already knew Donald Trump and ketchup were perfect for each other.

Music note: I listened to The Beatles.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: