Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House aide, testifies about Trump's actions on Jan. 6

The House select committee’s series of public hearings resumed Tuesday with explosive testimony from a former White House aide about the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that Trump knew attendees of his Jan. 6, 2021, rally had weapons but didn’t care that they were armed, saying they weren’t going to hurt him and he wanted a larger crowd.

Hutchinson told the panel that following the rally, Trump angrily demanded that his staff take him to the U.S. Capitol to press his efforts to block the certification of his election loss to Joe Biden.

When the president's staff informed him that they would be returning to the White House instead of driving to the Capitol, Trump grew irate and lunged for the steering wheel in the presidential limousine also known as "The Beast," Hutchinson said.

The surprise hearing was the sixth in a series of public presentations by the panel this month. It comes after Congress left Washington for a two-week recess. Lawmakers on the panel investigating the insurrection said last week that there would be no more hearings until July.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s chairman, told that the bipartisan panel needed time to go through a variety of new evidence, including never-before-seen video footage of Trump and his family from a British documentarian, new documents from the National Archives and a number of tips.

The committee is also still hoping to hear from additional witnesses, such as former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

At the conclusion of Hutchinson's testimony, Thompson praised the former aide for her candor and encouraged other witnesses to step forward.

“I want to speak directly to the handful of witnesses who have been outliers in our investigation, the small number who have defied us outright, those whose memories have failed them again and again on the most important details and to those who fear Donald Trump and his enablers," Thompson said. "Because of this courageous woman and others like her, your attempt to hide the truth from the American people will fail.”