CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Republican Congressional hopeful Max Miller testified to the Jan. 6 committee that former President Donald Trump said he wanted to go to the U.S. Capitol with rally-goers at the same time Congress was certifying his electoral loss.
In recorded testimony, investigators asked Miller, a former White House aide, whether Trump wanted to walk to the Capitol after speaking at the Jan. 6 rally in which Trump urged his supporters to disrupt the certification of Democratic then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“Walking to the Capitol? No,” Miller said.
When asked to clarify if Trump said he wanted to drive to the Capitol, Miller said that it did come up.
“He brought it up,” Miller said. “He said, ‘I want to go down to the Capitol.’”
Miller’s remarks were played during testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows, Trump’s White House chief of staff, during a previously unscheduled hearing before the select committee investigating the Capitol incursion by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2020.
Miller spokesman Colton Henson said in a statement the footage played during the hearing was selectively edited.
“Ohioans, and frankly, all Americans, are sick and tired of this partisan circus of edited testimony and over-produced lies,” Henson said. “Max testified for more the 4 hours, yet the committee is choosing to play only small clips because the complete truth destroys their fake narrative.”
Tuesday’s hearing is not the only time an Ohio figure has come up during Hutchinson’s testimony. Last week during a regularly scheduled hearing, Hutchinson said Rep. Jim Jordan, a Champaign County Republican, had talked about issuing pardons to members of Congress who were involved with the planning and execution of the Jan. 6 rally-turned-riot or perpetuated the unfounded claim that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Miller, of Rocky River, is the Republican nominee for Ohio’s newly remapped 7th Congressional District. Much of the geographic boundaries of the seat are currently represented by Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a Rocky River Republican, who was one of 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 incursion. He was eventually censured by the Ohio Republican Party for his vote.
Gonzalez decided to not run for re-election, citing the toxic environment within the Republican Party as one reason. Miller, who was one of Trump’s earliest endorsements this election cycle, also successfully crowded out Rep. Bob Gibbs, a Holmes County Republican first elected in 2010. Gibbs was one of the members of the Republican caucus who voted to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in favor of Trump.
Miller will face Bay Village podcast producer Matthew Diemer, a Democrat, in the general election.