Enough

by Cassidy Hutchinson

In the fabric of our nation’s history, there is a body of guardians who protect the sanctity of our republic.

Liz reminds us that true leadership is grounded in principle, and that change can be achieved through unyielding loyalty to our democratic ideals.

testament to the transformative power of leaders like Liz, who inspire us to be agents of the truth in our republic, and beyond. That we, as individuals, are enough.

my aspirations for the future with a reporter for a student newspaper. I wanted to “be an effective leader in the fight to secure the American dream for future generations,” I volunteered, “so they too will have the bountiful opportunities and freedoms that make the United States great.”

Though we would never be able to see it ourselves, there was a whole world being built beneath our feet. Grandma promised that if I learned to be curious and attentive, I could help others see what’s often overlooked.

biggest mistake a woman could make was to think she couldn’t do the same thing as a man.

While I had spent less than forty-eight hours in Washington, DC, during that first trip, I was inexplicably, physically, emotionally, and spiritually tethered to the city. I felt a magnetic bond—a sense of premonition—that Washington was my home.

Home is a feeling, a sense of security and belonging. If you have people who love and care about you, you have a home.

John McCain, terminally ill with brain cancer, dramatically cast a late-night vote, giving the bill a thumbs-down on the Senate floor. Cruz, a proponent of repealing Obamacare, was livid. I had long admired McCain, and found his action an inspiring example of an American patriot putting his country before his party.

I would leave the Hill having learned more about government during my summer with Scalise and Cruz, and in the upcoming internship at the White House, than in four years of college. I valued the experience I gained to be able to discern the subtleties and needs of various personalities. And I learned that my ambitions weren’t outside my reach.

With experience on both sides of the Capitol, I believed that the White House internship would strengthen my résumé when I applied for jobs on the Hill after graduation.

Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA). OLA was the liaison between the executive and legislative branches of government. The office was tasked with harmonizing the president’s legislative agenda with Capitol Hill—or, in the Trump administration, finding ways to reinvent tradition

and decorum between the two branches. In OLA I would be able to observe the intricacies of policymaking while continuing to develop my understanding of Congress. I sent in my application, identifying OLA as my first choice for placement, and emailed a c...

invaluable perch in the East Wing. OLA was divided into two teams, one for the House and one for the Senate. I had been assigned to the House team. With the 2018 midterm elections approaching, the president’s schedule was crowded with congressional events. I interacted frequently with House members when they came to the White House and accompanied them to meetings or events with the president.

For years I had clung to the hope that my love for my dad would make him a better man—make him the father I wanted him to be.

until the House formally voted on the articles of impeachment, I was to send hourly emails to every House Republican with messages from the president, flooding people’s inboxes with talking points, rebuttals, and pointed criticism meant to rally the troops like when Trump ripped out an article from the New York Times and wrote over it, in black Sharpie, “House Rs must have PERFECT VOTE.” I didn’t stop to think more about it at the time, other than doing what the president asked of me. I ran through the East Wing doors, holding my dress in place, and raced to my desk. Catching my breath for a moment, I had the distinct sense that this was how my life would be from this day forward.

I felt that impeachment should be reserved for an offense so egregious that it was certain a president should be removed from office. I worried that the 2019 inquiry would establish precedent for presidents to face any politically motivated impeachment.

Mick was on thin ice with Trump after a White House press briefing at which he’d referred to withholding aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigating the Bidens. Trump and various surrogates had been saying for weeks that this was not a quid pro quo. When a reporter asked Mick how it wasn’t, he answered, “We do that all the time with foreign policy… Get over it.”

While trying to defend Trump’s actions, he had accidentally undermined himself and thus the president. The sound bite “Get over it” caused a lot of grief for the communications department,

My last email alert of the day usually went out at around nine. Afterward, I prepared a daily summary for White House senior staff that included an Excel spreadsheet with members’ most recent comments on impeachment. I detailed any movement of votes that day, marking members as yes, no, or undecided. I paid closest attention to Democrats in districts Trump had won, and those who had flipped their seats in the 2018

It’s the responsibility of OLA to remain fairly politically neutral in order to preserve relationships with members on both sides of the aisle and pass meaningful legislation that impacts everyday Americans. Many people don’t realize that the majority of bills that pass through Congress are overwhelmingly bipartisan.

the ability to cultivate diverse relationships is one of the most sought-after skills.

I hadn’t thought how it might be a loyalty test of any kind, or how my hourly barrage of messages contributed to anything beyond achieving the mission, or anything more about the whistleblower. I had landed my dream job and was a loyal foot soldier.

I doubt any politician could have led the country through the deadliest pandemic in a hundred years without making errors of judgment and execution. But of all the people in the world, President Trump was uniquely unsuited to the challenge. He lacked empathy and was stubborn and impatient. For all but the MAGA base, his aggressive personality made his leadership appear more erratic than inspirational.

$2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES). It was initially imagined as enough to see the country through the crisis in those early days. No one knew what COVID-19 really had in store for us all.

well together. Mark was Trump’s fourth chief of staff in four years. If he failed to deliver, it was entirely possible there would be a fifth.

“We’re going to start working on people we need to get rid of who are disloyal to the president, starting with the people who leak to the press.” He passed me a binder.

“I serve at the pleasure of the president, Mark. I will do whatever you or the president ask of me. But I think it’s important for all of us that I have a title that reflects the authority you’re giving me, with clearly specified duties.”

“You’ll be my person,” he added, “and I want you with me all the time. You’ll be my shadow. I want everyone to see you with me, that you speak and act for me.”

“my job would be to serve the White House chief of staff, who serves the president, correct?”

“It isn’t to serve Mark Meadows.”

He’s a hard worker, and extremely dedicated to his job, loyal to the president, but he didn’t consider his work to be partisan—a careerist Secret Service agent who had served under several Democrat and Republican presidents. He was always respectful, and would run most decisions by Mark or, in his absence, me. But he also wasn’t afraid to tell us hard truths. I left his office that night certain we would work well together, and pretty sure we’d become close friends.

Mark went from being a conservative bomb-thrower who had never participated in a successful bipartisan negotiation to being a key representative of the president as the executive and legislative branches flushed out the final details of critical COVID relief legislation. This was his first true test as the president’s chief of staff. I felt it was important he establish that he could set his partisan history aside when the stakes for the country were this high. It could set the tone for how history would view his tenure.

“Nobody expects you to know everything, Mark. Not even the president. They expect you to lead.”

At the time, I hadn’t considered how little Mark had seemed to look into the matter before firing McKenna, neither aware of the hit I might have just ordered nor viewing it as a potential initiation.

Mark’s desire to restaff OLA. He did little to hide his dislike of Eric, which only exacerbated OLA’s fears that he viewed them as tools of congressional leadership and the bureaucracy who would undermine his authority.

I encouraged Mark to meet separately with the House and Senate teams in their respective East Wing offices. Afterward, I learned that it was the first time any Trump White House chief of staff had paid a visit to the East Wing.

I wanted Mark to assure OLA that he would empower them to use their experience and independent judgment to advance the president’s legislative agenda. He seemed pleased with how he had been received when he returned from the second of the two meetings, admitting that he had initially been hesitant.

two travel pocket cards for Mark, a routine I continued for every trip we took together. On the front of the first card was the day’s travel schedule, and on the back was a list of the White House reporters traveling with us on Air Force One. On the front of the second card were the purpose of and the facts concerning the event we were attending, with a list of special guests

and their basic biographical details, so that Mark would always be prepared for the people he would meet on-site.

recommended that we follow a similar plan, identifying several issues where we might be able to make bipartisan progress, such as modernizing areas of the government where COVID had exposed cracks, addressing the opioid abuse epidemic and human trafficking, and strengthening workforce development programs. The president couldn’t always be relied on to stay on message, so I proposed using senior surrogates to promote the achievements at carefully staged White House events and on the road.

Stephen Miller’s wife, had tested positive for COVID. She had been at Camp David with us the weekend before, and was the second person in the president’s inner circle to test positive that week. Earlier in the week, one of the president’s valets had tested positive, which had privately infuriated Trump. Irrationally, he banished the valet from further duties of that kind when he returned from quarantine.

The press would criticize him for not wearing a mask, not knowing that the depth of his vanity had caused him to reject masks—and then millions of his fans followed suit.

I reminded myself. Emotions were unwelcome in the Trump White House. It was imperative to turn them off as a means to survive.

knew exactly what Mark was doing. He was making me Amy’s supervisor, and the de facto director of legislative affairs.

Over the past several months, I had begun to let my guard down with him. I was enforcing what Mark wanted across the administration and had done so effectively. But finding out he had lied to me with such convincing confidence made me realize that my guard should have always been up, at least partway.

June 19, Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the day Texan enslaved Black people learned of their emancipation, honoring the end of slavery in the US. It would occur the same month as the ninety-ninth anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when hordes of white rioters burned Black Wall Street to the ground, injuring and killing over a thousand Black people. Tony and I agreed it was such a bad idea. Wiser minds prevailed, and the date was changed to June 20.

He never thought the negotiations had a chance of succeeding. He would laughingly remind me that Mark had never brokered any major deal in Congress, and he “definitely won’t with Pelosi and Mnuchin in the room.”

He doesn’t understand how important loyalty is, I thought. But I caught myself in mid-thought before I said anything else I’d regret. I wondered when I had started to think of loyalty in such terms, but I shook the thought away.

he’d asked me to turn on my cell phone’s voice recorder.