Former Trump acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told CBS News Friday that a person inside the White House on January 6, 2021 said Mark Meadows, who replaced Mulvaney in that role as permanent chief of staff, was both incompetent and had a nervous breakdown during the riot at the Capitol.
Reporter Catherine Herridge asked, “Based on your contacts, what d you think was happening with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows?”
Mulvaney said, “I have Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony which was that he was completely disengaged. I was talking with a friend of mine during the testimony last week, and I was texting back and forth. And this person was in the West Wing during the January 6 riots. And I said, ‘You know — if I listen to Cassidy closely, it sounds like Mark was either completely incompetent at the job or was having a nervous breakdown.’ And the person texted back, ‘It was a little bit of both.’ So you get this impression that things had really broken down and that Mark Meadows as the chief of staff, which is a critical position, especially in those critical moments, had checked out entirely.”
Herridge asked, “I just want to be clear here. You had information, contact with someone who was in the White House on January 6, and their assessment was that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has lost control and had kind of checked out?”
Mulvaney said, “My words was Mark having a nervous breakdown, or was he just incompetent? And the response was it was a little bit of both. That would explain a lot of the breakdown in the West Wing.”
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