The unwillingness to see nuance in people who work in politics might be the death of us all. Sh-tty people can sometimes do something heroic, brave and compassionate. “Good” people can often do terrible, cruel, awful things. One of the things I wish younger people would “get” is political nuance and the ability to see America as fundamentally unfinished, that the work of democracy is not an annual project or a decade-long experiment, but a task for every generation, concurrently. I bring this up because of Cassidy Hutchinson and her testimony before the January 6th Committee.
Hutchinson was fresh out of college when she began working for the Trump administration, and she was Mark Meadows’ legislative aide during the insurrection. Too many people focused on Hutchinson herself, her motives, her background, her “performance,” rather than her actual testimony. Even now, left-leaning people are doing Donald Trump’s work and trying to cast aspersions on Hutchinson herself. It doesn’t actually matter (to me) if Hutchinson was a true-blue Trumper at some point. She’s still capable of telling the truth (under threat of perjury). All of which to say, Hutchinson is facing real danger from the Trumpers. Which is probably why it feels like Hutchinson has hired some PR people and there’s an emphasis on her safety.
Since Cassidy Hutchinson’s shocking testimony that Donald Trump was aware his supporters were armed in D.C. on Jan. 6, and that he lunged at his Secret Service detail in the car in an attempt to reach the Capitol that day, her life has taken a dramatic turn.
“Safety precautions are being taken,” a friend tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, on newsstands nationwide Friday. “She went into this knowing her life would change.”
Due to her appearance last week before the House committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol, Hutchinson has received threats. She’s also faced attacks from anonymous sources disputing some of her testimony, but at least two anonymous Secret Service agents have corroborated it.
Still, “she’s doing remarkably well,” former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, now a CNN commentator, tells PEOPLE. “I think she went into it with open eyes.”
It has been a head-spinning several years for the 25-year-old Hutchinson. As a senior at Virginia’s Christopher Newport University in 2018, Hutchinson, a first-generation college student from New Jersey, told her school paper: “I have set a personal goal to pursue a path of civic significance.” Soon after graduation, she was clearly on that path, joining the White House in 2019 and immediately becoming a standout as an advisor to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
According to a friend, Hutchinson “believed in the Trump agenda but was devastated by what she saw once she was there. It was a mix of everything, from the lack of structure to the infighting to the backstabbing and witnessing the character of the president that many went in admiring and realizing he is mean-spirited.”
There’s more at People about how she’s trying to piece her life back together. It’s kind of clever to position herself this way, with a soft-focus piece in People Magazine. To the Trumpers who read People, maybe Hutchinson will remind them of their daughters or nieces, and maybe they’ll start to think about what it was like for her in that corrupt and fascist administration. It might make it personal to some people. Which is why Donald Trump and his people have engaged in a concerted effort of character assassination with Hutchinson, as well as threatening her.
Photos courtesy of Instar.
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- -Washington, District of Columbia – 20220628-Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Testifies To The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack Cassidy Hutchinson, top former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appears before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, -PICTURED: Cassidy Hutchinson -PHOTO by: Andrew Harnik/POOL/CNP/startraksphoto.com -062822_Jan6-Commission-Pool_002 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at sales@startraksphoto.com or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded
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- -Washington, District of Columbia – 20220628-Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Testifies To The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack Cassidy Hutchinson, top former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appears before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, -PICTURED: Cassidy Hutchinson -PHOTO by: Andrew Harnik/POOL/CNP/startraksphoto.com -062822_Jan6-Commission-Pool_004 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at sales@startraksphoto.com or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded
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- -Washington, District of Columbia – 20220628-Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Testifies To The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack Cassidy Hutchinson, top former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appears before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, -PICTURED: Cassidy Hutchinson -PHOTO by: Andrew Harnik/POOL/CNP/startraksphoto.com -062822_Jan6-Commission-Pool_011 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at sales@startraksphoto.com or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded
I wish Donald Trump never existed, never became famous, never became anyone. He is truly public enemy number one for what he has done to this country and its faith in its.institutions, and worse, it’s just getting worse since he left office.
I fear the decision SCOTUS will make regarding state elections later this year. We lost our country through Trump
You’re absolutely right. He made nasty, hateful people proud of their nastiness and hate. My one (albeit tiny) regret about working from home was that I was really looking forward to bringing in doughnuts for the whole division when he finally … goes extinct.
The truly sad part is that there are still so many Trumpers out there that want him to be president again. And any republicans running for the presidency all take on his mannerisms and speech. This is what it has come to. Corruption is running rampant in Washington…its a shame.
Who woulda thunk that Apprentice Guy would have ever made it to THIS.
I am 100 percent with Kaiser on this. If we want to win we have to stop the nitpicking about motives and look at the end result. Did this person make a horrible choice to work for Trump? Yep. But her testimony might be the most important so far and it was brave of her considering how insane some of Trumps followers are.
Also in agreement. We have been conditioned into binary thinking, largely because of social media. Literally nothing and no one is pure good or pure evil. We should judge people by their actions and their willingness to learn from their mistakes. She believed in Trump’s mission- well, that was real dumb. However, no one in the inner Trump world has had the brains/guts to speak up like this. She deserves to be acknowledged for that bravery. It is no easy thing.
Would she have spoken up if he’d won? That’s the other side of this coin unfortunately. And it kind of does matter a lot.
@ C: Considering he didn’t win, it doesn’t really matter now what she would’ve done if he had. So no- it doesn’t matter!
Well, yes, it does.
I’m not trying to focus all the attention on this young woman because she’s not the person to be concerned with and I’m happy she is giving testimony. But lionizing a person for doing the “right thing” because it’s become legally expedient for her to do so even given the harassment she’ll face (let’s face it, the sad thing is she’s probably faced harassment her whole career given that she was involved with a Trump White House)…I’m skeptical.
She had an opportunity to do this before now, too.
It’s important because certain politicians and politically-active people will do these things and later use it for political capital to enact and aid repressive measures, like Mitt Romney as Haylie below commented.
I’m glad she did this but there are no heroes here. You can think it’s the right thing without thinking we should all applaud her as some sort of trailblazer, is all I’m saying. And I have little faith in anyone associated with this world actually having a “come to Jesus” moment as it were. But that’s me.
I mean, look at Pence. He refused to go along with Trump and faced all the danger that that involved, but he’s still encouraging the politics that his base, and the people who threatened his life, are championing.
C, I don’t think anyone is calling her a hero. What is being recognized is that she chose to testify knowing that she would be where she is today: living with death threats and character assassination. If you want to do a what if? What if dumpster fire had won and she quit because she could NOT continue to work for his administration or the people who supported him. There’s no way of knowing what would have happened.
I think she is brave to testify openly like this. I don’t care what her politics are or were at the time. I don’t know her, but is it possible that this is her way of trying to right a wrong–the wrong being that she supported him even for a second?
We just don’t have enough information to start the what if game. I am focusing on what her testimony was. She definitely lit a fire–now let’s see where it leads.
This will be my last comment- I am going to gently point out that many comments in the other post and other people outside of this site are indeed calling her a hero. If someone wants to think that then that’s their prerogative but there are lots of Republicans who are officially decrying Trump and supposedly endangering themselves and yet enacting his policies. I mentioned Pence in my last comment and will do so again. He was nearly lynched for denying Trump – but has he helped anyone or our democracy since? He’s been happy to praise the Trump Justices who lied during confirmations. I’m glad there are Trump associates testifying, but the fact is that the political climate is allowing most of them to get away with the real effects of what they did – witness these Supreme Court decisions. I wouldn’t wonder if that was part of why she is testifying, honestly.
I think we should be honest about what we expect and hope for from these hearings. I do care what her politics are, because that is going to prove whether she really does believe if what she did was a mistake (and not just her but many others, I’m just stating for the purpose of my example). Trump and his close associates may be implicated, but it’s not going to matter much in the long run if the hydra spouts more heads. And it will if these people go forward with his policies even if they “officially” disown him. So let’s not be too hasty with our praise, is all I’m saying, and yes, focus on the testimony, because I think people going too far in *both* directions.
She didn’t choose to testify, she was subpoenaed. She had to testify. And she’s required to tell the truth. Is that bravery? Telling the truth in a legal matter?
Totally agree K
Ditto to Kaiser, @K, @MipMip, et al
As Democrats, we need to look at the big picture. She did what a lot of them won’t do. She didn’t wait to tell the story until she got a guaranteed book deal. Do I not like her employment choices? Nope. But she put herself out there knowing the vitriol she’d face.
She received a subpoena. She didn’t have a choice.
When I saw her in the white blazer I thought, ohhh here we go…
Agree with you Kaiser. Thank you for this post.
I loathe everything about the party she chose, but her testimony is v brave. I worked in national politics in my early 20s and it shocked me how much responsibility, access, and power we inexperienced kids were given (my national field staff *boss* was 28). But no surprise it takes younger people who haven’t yet grown the diamond-hard, ethically-“flexible” callous that nearly all politicos end up with to do the right thing. It’s a cut-throat, wildly misogynistic life, and I worked for the Dems! Some of the goons working for the opposing GOP candidates were genuinely scary. Like, I always made sure some man walked me through the parking garage when we were staying at the same hotels with them kind of scary. Uff. I realized I would quickly turn into some creature I didn’t want to be so left for grad school. Brave young woman. And “coffee girl” my ass.
Ehh, as Democrats, we spent far too much time giving credit to right wingers in their broken clocks phase, only to wonder weeks later why they keep kicking us in the teeth. We’ve learned nothing after praising Mitt Romney for speaking against trump while voting to enact his policies and confirm his SCOTUS picks who are rolling back civil rights and reproductive choice gains. Don’t even get me started on Liz Cheney.
Yes, Dems fall in love, Republicans fall in line. But in this case I can live with “the enemy of my enemy is my frenemy” just long enough to possibly knee cap Grandpa Racist and his crime syndicate. But I completely agree with you, all the Gee Whiz, West Wing episode sentimentality Dems love to entertain is a big ongoing problem.
And everyone giving Pence credit for refusing to cooperate with the coup.
I’m sure this is hard for her and I’m sorry about that, but I have no doubt she’d have been sitting just fine if their coup had succeeded.
We need to go harder on these people instead of giving them cookies for doing the basic right thing.
And the crappy fact is, Trumpers who are STILL with Trump at this point are going to side with him no matter what Hutchinson’s testimony is.
idk, doesn’t sound like she sides with him now. I think it is possible to reach some people.
dems want perfection and the GQP wants to get shit done. we are shooting ourselves in the foot in this way.
I’m sure she still believes in some of the bullshittery. but it took a lot of courage to stand up and tell those truths.
I don’t agree. I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot by the constant appeasement and praise of the other side for doing the bare minimum now that we know how horrible they are. Republicans are notorious for getting what they want even in a minority and I think it’s time for us to go low not high – we could be expanding the courts, impeaching or trying to impeach the justices who lied, being more aggressive about getting rid of the filibuster. Even if we don’t have the congressional votes to achieve them, we could and should be trying harder and being louder. Otherwise, all the measures that Trump’s court is putting through are going to stand and coups like the attempted one of January 6 will become much more likely – or even unnecessary. The bar needs to be higher, in my opinion.
I’m with you, Haylie.
Brave young lady. Good for her, I really hope it doesn’t get her hurt.
I don’t fault her choosing to work for the Trump administration. I’ve read a lot about this administration (books, articles, etc.) and I don’t doubt that many people went to work for this administration wanting to govern (perhaps not the way we democrats would agree with), but instead were confronted with a hell-hole. I really admire her bravery in coming forward to testify. She’s probably torpedoed her career with the Trump-obsessed Republicans, but if I were hiring from either side of the aisle, I would definitely choose someone like her—she put integrity above all else.
But that article states that she, like a lot of people, went to work for the trump administration only to find out later that he was mean-spirited. Are they serious with this?! It was pretty d*mn obvious throughout the campaign what a mean SOB he was, always has been & always will be.
There’s something that really bothers me about trying to understand “nuance” in these hearings.
Even if they go forward, we are still dealing with the fallout of almost all of their political goals being achieved. So at this point, it’s almost like they didn’t even need a coup! Our rights are still falling like dominoes from the things they did in office. And furthermore, gerrymandering and voter suppression are now empowered more than ever by Trump’s justices, so further elections are going to be massively undermined.
What’s the point of going forward on these hearings if we aren’t also going to push back on that?? These justices need to be impeached, other measures need to be taken.
I’m sorry – massively frustrated.
Agreed.
Let’s face it, she’s done what SO MANY have not been willing or able to do in that God-forsaken Trump White House. Tell the truth of what truly went on there. She’s a 26-year-old woman, and there are men/women decades older, considerably more experienced that refuse to do the same (looking at you Mike Pence – that asshole tried to have you hung 🙄).
I said this before in the the other post re: Cassidy Hutchinson. We always speak of MAGA as a cult, and it is!!! So why don’t we give her credit for braking free of that? Like we would for people breaking free of say, Scientology? Like Leah Remini or Paul Haggis? To me, they are very similar, but MAGA has the dire threat to our very democracy and country! But make no mistake, these people become brainwashed; it’s what we all say and observe. Give this woman the credit she rightly deserves.
And she was fresh out of college at the time. She’s still extremely young to be taking on the god-emperor of a death cult like this (I wish I were exaggerating…).
Tbh I’m suspicious of some of the so-called “left-leaning” people who were coming for her. I’m not saying we need to declare National Cassidy Hutchinson Day or anything, but it is in the interests of the alt right to make her as isolated and despised by as many people as possible. And I am inclined to be wary of anybody who is jumping to treat her as the enemy right now.
Well said. I feel the same. She is getting smeared every which way from the right; is it REALLY helpful for people on the left to hit back at her as well??? Would you rather she DIDN’T come forward? Do you see why she would be hesitant, given the revealed messages she was getting (obviously the Trump camp was trying to pressure her testimony and do who knows what else. For an idea, listen to Adam Kinzinger’s just released voicemail messages he has been getting from Trump supporters. Some of the worst stuff I have heard). I am sure there are similar horrid threats to her, her safety and family now. You think that is EASY? Trump’s base is a bunch of violent terrorists who stormed the Capital and attacked police officers. That is who we are dealing with.
Seems that Hutchinson coming forward may have opened up for others to come forward. Pat Cipolone is testifying at the next hearing, as well as another female WH top aide.
She didn’t come forward, she was subpoenaed.
Emily, the other thing I think gets pushed aside is the fact that she wanted to tell more but wasn’t asked. She told a friend that. She got her own attorney–not the Trump supplied attorney, and she got called in for more interviews.
She didn’t just testify and go home. She is responsible for everything that she finally testified to. Does that make her a hero? No, but it does make her brave. I tend to think that she actually still believes in democracy in this country and is trying in her own way to help preserve that.
I totally agree that the left need to stop doing Trump//extremistRepublicans’ job by going after her so that her message isn’t going to be heard. Her testimony is extremely important. If people want to talk about Hutchinson, then talk about her testimony and spread it far and wide.
@BeanieBean Yes, she was subpoenaed. But she answered all their questions and gave a compelling testimony, and provided us with even more detail of what went on in the days leading to Jan 6th and on that day. She could have refused the subpoena (like others), she could have pleaded the fifth in answering questions (like others), but she did NOT do any of those things. Again, I see zero point in trying to tear down this woman, who is standing up to the mafia-like, Trump/MAGA GOP, who have proven themselves to be nothing short of murderous criminals in their last grasps at holding onto power.
This young woman is so brave, her life is changed now and she will need 24/7 security for the foreseeable future. Adam Kinzinger has just released a tape of some of the threatening voicemails he’s been receiving and it is sickening, utterly sickening, and I’m sure Cassidy is being inundated with similar messages. Trump has unleashed a kind of mass insanity that has infected so many people with the “I will kill you and your family because I don’t agree with your politics” mentality and it is truly scary.
I just desperately hope this leads to charges for people in the Trump admin so that her testimony wasn’t in vain. She risked her life for that hearing.
When I was in college, I still stuck to the Republican beliefs I grew up with. It was my first experience outside of the super uber-white area I grew up in. I started traveling and having friends outside of my race & socioeconomic class. So at her age I was starting to see things from other perspectives and realize that I was very much NOT a Republican.
All of that is to say people can change, she’s very young, and I don’t really want to hold contempt for the one woman who’s taking all the risks here. If she goes on to keep being super duper Trumpian… fine, whatever. She’s done this one good thing.
She got over her dissonance to do the right thing. That’s a thing that is difficult, if not impossible for most. Good for her!
Agree 100%. Very little in this world is black and white, and people contain multitudes.
As a prosecutor-turned tv pundit observed, you don’t have to a good person to be a good witness, and saints are rarely in a position to observe criminal conspiracies firsthand.
Do I loathe her politics? Without a doubt. But she does have guts. She fired her Trump-world lawyers who advised her not to cooperate, and she ultimately shared more information with the committee than they believed she had..
No. The media is making it way to easy on this white woman to be rehabilitated.
She literally said, under oath, that Casino was doing great things for this country.
I’m not condoning her deplorable politics, but: at this point, some of that is performative. She needs to demonstrate to the other “conservatives”, that she’s still one of them, so they’ll believe her testimony.
She’s trying to save herself now that it’s all coming out, but she had no problem benefitting from all of this corruption when it mattered. She’s trash and a traitor to her country.
Understand this, Miss Hutchison: You may have staved the butcher off by holding his knife for a little while, but don’t you worry. They’ll come for you, too, soon enough. The wiser among us won’t be wasting our time reaching out a hand to help, either.
@Veronica S — 100%.
Kaiser posted a story a while back about Amal Clooney and her interview with Time magazine (?). Amal made an amazing point about justice — it must be wielded. You have to bend the arc towards justice with all your might. That POV gave me a new perspective and some clarity, especially in these dark days watching as the US plunges in a downward spiral. It’s gonna take everyone, every ally and every win to bend that arc just to get us back to the Roe days.
We need more people like her to come forward and testify. But anyone who willingly took a job with the Trump Administration, were they all high? What did they think would happen working for the Orange One? I will not listen to “I had no idea it would be that bad!” anymore. Everyone who didn’t vote for him knew his presidency would be a disaster for the country and were all told they were being fatalistic. Trump was inflammatory during his campaigning and showed us who he was then. Did people think he was putting on an act while campaigning? She was 22, not 12. And this goes for everyone who served willingly under Trump during his term, not just her.
I have 4 granddaughters in this age group. The human brain continues to mature into the mid twenties. Some of their decisions up to this point may not be what we would do, considering our age and experience. I’m giving her a pass and will let history sort this out down the road.
Its probably not just PR to say her life has been threatened—this is the crew she’s hung with. Still, I’d like to know just exactly which part of the “Trump agenda” she was on board for.