Colwell: The surprise star of Jan. 6 hearings has a new book

Cassidy Hutchinson, the young woman who was the surprise star of the Jan. 6 hearings, with riveting testimony about Donald Trump’s conduct on the day of the Capitol insurrection, has high praise for Mike Pence.

Hutchinson, just 24 years old and unknown to the nation back on that terrible day, actually was a power in the White House, top aide to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff. Her office was only steps from the Oval Office.

As she tells in “Enough,” her new book, Hutchinson was a true believer in the Trump administration, dedicated to seeking approval of Trump’s agenda and his reelection.

She was a conservative Republican. Still is. Finally, she broke from the Trump cult, losing friends and risking personal safety, after realizing Trump was neither conservative nor Republican in his goals for personal aggrandizement and retaining a presidency he lost.

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Meadows told her: “Cass, he knows it’s over. He knows he lost, but we’re going to keep trying.”

Hutchinson, distraught at the Capitol violence, pleaded for Meadows to get Trump to do something to stop it.

“No, he wants to be alone right now,” she recalls Meadows telling her as Trump, watching TV in the Oval dining room, did nothing to discourage violence of his supporters in the Capitol as they sought to prevent certification of presidential election results.

She had heard of how Trump, furious that the Secret Service wouldn’t take him to the Capitol with those supporters, grabbed for the presidential limo steering wheel when the agents protecting him headed instead to the White House.

At the door to the dining room, Hutchinson heard the TV blaring and Trump shouting “hang.”

Rioters at that time were shouting: “Hang Mike Pence!”

Trump responded in a tweet: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”

Hutchinson writes that suddenly everything became clear:

“They’re calling for the vice president to be hanged.

“The president is okay with it.

“He doesn’t want to do anything.

“He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.

”He thinks Mike is a traitor.

“This is crazy.”

Six days later, Hutchinson, still at the White House, still hopeful that Trump could be persuaded to leave gracefully with a concession, heard on her Secret Service radio: “Hoosier, arrived West Wing.” That was the code name for Pence. He and the president were going to meet.

“He (Pence) looked every inch a president,” Hutchinson said, a contrast with somebody in the Oval Office who had looked not an inch presidential.

As Pence departed, he stopped to thank Hutchinson and other staffers for service to the country. He hurried away before Hutchinson could respond. She said she wanted to “thank him, too, for the spectacular job he had done, but primarily for the resolve he exemplified on January 6. Because of his courage, our democracy was still intact. Bruised, but not broken.”

Pence was the type of real Republican conservative she admired.

She still found it hard to break away from Team Trump. She had devoted so much time, so much effort to the cause. Friends were pulling her back in. She was considering going to Florida with the former president, hoping to guide him in a better direction.

As she faced a call to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, Hutchinson was provided with a Trump-connected lawyer. She said he advised her to play dumb, avoid any answers damaging to Trump. Following the advice, “I don’t recall” was her frequent answer in initial questioning. She volunteered nothing.

But she did recall. Did want to disclose what she heard, saw and knew.

Someone so smart didn’t want to play dumb.

She met with Liz Cheney, truly a Republican conservative. She was provided with new attorneys, also Republicans. She broke free from Team Trump. Free to tell the truth in her bombshell televised testimony.

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Cassie Hutchinson of Jan. 6 hearings has a new book