Ticket 2 Ride

Cassidy Hutchinson testified against former President Donald Trump regarding the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. As a 20-something junior staffer testifying against Trump and the actions of others, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, that takes moxie.

Her book, Enough (2023, Simon & Schuster), outlines what Hutchinson heard and saw during her time working at the White House, first as an intern and later as a paid staffer. An idealistic college graduate from a small town, she passionately sought to serve the country she believed in, ever since she was a child. A conservative, she believed in the administration she joined, with the mission to reelect Trump, who even gave her some styling advice. “Cassidy, you should get some of her (Hope Hicks) highlights. I think they would look really nice on you,” Trump said.

“You’re my eyes and ears,” said Meadows when he hired her as his assistant. “You speak and act for me.” She would see and hear a lot.

As she moved closer to the Oval Office, her eyes were opened to behavior and actions within the White House that seemed wrong and counter to her values. Naive? Yes. It’s hard to turn away when powerful people abuse power when you are asked to work on the greatest stage in the world. Personally and professionally, a person tries to make the best of it and not step in the sewage.

The issues of the Ukraine call, leakers to the media, Covid, the Bible incident, Meadows burning documents his office fireplace, blow-back over the George Floyd murder and so on. Hutchinson began to see the dysfunction and feel caught up in the paranoia, vindictiveness, feuds, the impeachments and Trump’s bizarre behavior. Quite the education. She lays out the events, from her view, and the gnashing of the personalities surrounding her.

Hutchinson presents a most intriguing view of the Trump White House and Congressional visitors. It was quite a cast of characters by any imagination: Meadows, Gaetz, Giuliani, McCarthy, Cruz, Miller…adults behaving more like middle-schoolers.

Incredibly, even as the MAGA terrorists were storming the Capitol and Trump were trying to get there to lead the charge, she was still committed to following him to Florida after he left office, because “he needed good people.” That job of course vanished as the investigation into January 6 unfolded. Hutchinson carefully mentions all of the times Trump, Meadows or one of the others in the White House complimented her work or loyalty. Those comments quickly stopped as her name exploded on social media and the threats came in.

Overall, the book reads like two different books. The first half is average, dry and fawning over her White House experiences and the important people she rubs shoulders with. It’s really from the January 6th events forward that her writing speaks with maturity and we appreciate the difficult and important place she was in national events. If you paid attention to the House Committee investigating the January 6th events, you know her testimony. What she reveals is more about what she felt and how this changed her life. Her decision to dump the Trump-sponsored attorney and reach out to Liz Cheney to come clean with what she knew, spun her life in a different direction. “I knew my loyalties should have been to the country, to the truth, and not to the former president, who made himself a threat to both.”

Hutchinson found legal representation that not only advised her, but protected her, and did it pro bono. Her life was her job, and because she turned on Trump World, most of her friends vanished. Even her Trump-loving crazy father disappeared, although that was mostly a positive.

I admit, I nearly put the book aside during the first 150 pages, but I’m glad that I didn’t. The second half of the book helped put the first half in perspective. It saw her idealism crushed and her blind loyalty for what it really was. She came to understand how she chose to worship flawed people, not the institutions they worked for, or more importantly, the Constitution.

Hutchinson was in a special seat to witness what she did, and in such close proximity to the Oval Office, so quickly in her career. Few people have that opportunity. Unfortunately, what seemed like the treat was in reality, the fuzzy end of the lollipop.

Hutchinson draws a comparison to Alexander Butterfield, the Watergate figure who worked in the Nixon White House who revealed the existence of the taping system. Hutchinson and Butterfield became friends, sharing a unique footnote in history. I am admiration for Hutchinson, not only that she realized she was being used by the Trump attorney, but to essentially agree to putting a MAGA target on herself by going against “the family.” How many people at age 25 could testify on live television and draw the ire of a former president and his legion of followers. Trump followers won’t have read her book or be interested in acts of betrayal against the law and the Constitution.

Enough is not a great book, but Cassidy Hutchinson is a great American.

3/5