YouSaid · the spoken record

Cassidy Hutchinson

lines on the record: 60
first: 2023-12-21
most recent: 2023-12-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Thank you, David. Thank you for having me on. I'm really fortunate for the opportunity to talk to your listeners. So we're all in this together.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I am open to opportunities that come my way, but I think it's extremely important. And honestly, an extension of my public service to continue talking about this issue to make sure that Donald Trump never gets near the Oval Office again. But I think that every American owes our country and our history and our future generations the benefit of ensuring that our nation has a chance to survive. And if I can play any part in that, I think that I'll have done my job.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think that we're entering, especially as we go to 2024, we're entering such a critical period in our nation's history. And I personally believe it's imperative that people like me who have the benefit of having served Donald Trump. And using that as a beneficial way to continue sounding the alarm and warning the American people as we enter this next election about what the stakes are. So I am a planner. I would love to have a five-year planner, even a three-year planner. Right now, I sort of have this loose one-year plan that.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The violence and threats that were unleashed on me aren't unique to my situation. So as much as my life did change and I was aware that my life would change and I was, you know, I don't say this with pride, but I was on the inside. I know how I could sort of predict how the messaging was going to unravel because I had been part of that. All of that said, the president of the United States, the former president of the United States, or the current or somebody who is running for president of the United States is running for that office to protect not only our institutions of government, but to protect the American people. So just the sheer fact that Donald Trump is such a weak-minded person that he feels the need to unleash violence on the American people just so he can, in his own pursuit of power and for his own wounded ego.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had made that decision to switch legal counsel. That was the end of my time in Trump world, but that's also when I began what I call my life on the outside.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's how I felt. And it's encouraged, and Trump rolled, and I had his counsel too. Say you don't recall the committee doesn't know what you can and can't recall, but I would do want to point out this upon specifically told me that he doesn't want me to lie and departure myself. So I had mixed signals. I felt and I this again, this is my first time ever needing counsel. But all that said, you know, I also made mistakes. I take responsibility for the mistakes that I made and I was fortunate to end up joining with legal counsel pro bono who actually were able to represent my interests in what I wanted to do with the committee, which was to be completely forthcoming with the committee. And at that point,”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look back on that, and it again, it seems like it's sort of a silly and minor moment, but for me, it was a profound realization that I did have a second chance and everything I've done throughout this entire journey from that. And then I ended up backtracking to the committee for a third interview, ultimately switching legal counsel to a firm I was extremely fortunate.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“thought was sort of hokey at the time but i did i went and looked in my apartment mirror and i was crying at the time and he asked if i liked when i was looking at and he made a point he's like i don't i don't mean your appearance i mean do like the person that you're looking that's looking back at you because you cassidy are the only person that has to live with yourself for the rest of your life if you can live with yourself for the rest of your life knowing that you feel that you've made mistakes that's fine you don't carry on but if you want to try to change who you are and who you're the person that you have seen yourself become Still is time. You don't have a lot of time, but you have to work to correct your wrongs now.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I read through my transcripts, and again, I at the time was an expert compartmentalizer. And I had compartmentalized the fact that I hadn't been fully forthcoming and provided the committee with all the information that I knew. So I had this moment where I was reading through my transcripts. And I saw. In that moment that I had the Kong over years and I had become the person that I never wanted to become. I took a job in the government because I believe in our institutions and I believe in our founding documents and I believe in America. But I was part of an operation that was protecting the principle Donald Trump and not the principles that we signed up to serve. So I called a Republican member of Congress that I was close to and I'm close to to this day. and he implored me in that conversation to go look in the mirror”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wasn't fully aware or couldn't envision the place that we ended up in when the committee began its public hearings and even afterwards too that there were that so many of my superiors would hide under the guise of executive privilege and that wouldn't come forward with the information that they knew. I had sort of an idea of that, but I thought when push came to shove, they would step up and fulfill the leadership roles as the public servants that they signed up to and they swore the oath to defend and protect the constitution of the United States. So I personally reached a point, you know, there were a few pages of my public of my transcripts publicized in April 2022 after I had interviewed the committee twice.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was my first time ever needing an attorney. And I, for a while, went to January 6th committee was formed, I felt that if I was ever asked, either under subpoena or voluntarily to provide information, I wanted to be forthcoming about what I knew. I did end up with Trump appointed counsel. I saw Trump appointed counsel because I wasn't able to afford my own independent counsel. And at the time, I was grateful that they were willing to help find me representation, although I did know at least in my view that it's also seen as currency in Trump world. I take a free attorney and I'm, in my view, accepted or expected to continue being loyal.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Correct. And so when we again, when we look at this next election, we need to think about the people who would theoretically be back in power. To answer your second part of the question, short answer, no, I'm not going to speculate about where those binders might be. I have faith in Jack Smith and his investigators, though it's a pertinent issue to the Justice Department, I have faith in our institutions and in his team, if they'll get to the bottom of it.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't have much more to expand on beyond what I've testified to. Side did Trump administration has been publicly known for a while and also in my experience and observations to be extremely frivolous and careless with our nation's most sensitive national security secrets.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My observations, I don't know if it was that he was distracted and disconnected and didn't care or if that he was so overwhelmed with everything that was going on that he in some way shut down. But I also don't think that I do a disservice by Marquis. In some ways he had one of the hardest jobs in the country. I don't want that to be lost on history as well. He was the chief of staff during an extremely tumultuous period. Do I disagree with some of the leadership decisions that he made? Absolutely.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Infamous December 18th meeting where the former president had Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn, Patrick Byrne in the Oval Office, and he was prepared to invoke the insurrection act to see his voting machines. He showed that he was willing to do it then, and he's showed since then he's told us since then that he is willing to do that again, and we need to believe him.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That is an undemocratic concept by nature. He also has shown us that he values authoritarian rule over a rule of law. He has shown us that he is willing to completely reject the rulings of the courts and that he has happened in 2020. He wanted to deploy the military to seize voting machines, which means that he would weaponize the military to his own benefit and to his own strength. That is not what a leader of the free world is meant to do, especially under our constitution. I wasn't somebody that was making decisions in meetings, but I was privy to a lot of information. I spent a lot of time with Mark Meadows and the principal surrounding the former president at the time. And you need to look back no further to almost exactly three years ago today.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Donald Trump demands complete loyalty and fidelity, and he, in his first term, had people surrounding him who knew the governments, and I do believe kept the guardrails up. The guardrails are completely down now. They were completely down after the two that almost completely down after the 2020 presidential election and through January 6th. Donald Trump has learned from his mistakes if reports are accurate. Donald Trump and his supporters are currently working to build a database where they're intensely vetting people to work in the administration for complete fidelity and loyalty to Donald Trump. Some of those people end up working in very powerful positions, but he's also looked and he discussed this at the end of his first term. He's also looked at implementing a Schedule F, which essentially would, to my understanding, he would be able to... Blow up civil service tens of thousands of civil servants”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We also need to think about Congress. January 6th happened because of Donald Trump's actions. January 6th wasn't worse because there were still good and decent people in our government that were willing to do the right thing, to willing to uphold their oath of office and certify the results of the election. We elect another Republican majority to Congress The election is tossed to Congress. There's a very good chance that Trump's supporters in Congress are going to continue to cry fraud and throw the election to him.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“than what happened on that day. But then a few weeks later, Kevin McCarthy was down at Maralago because that was politically advantageous to him. And there were a lot of Republicans who had an opportunity to do the right thing, to stand up for the Constitution. And they didn't and they aren't. And I think that's one but extremely disappointing to witness and these people that I revered as leaders in my very early career, but also now to look back and realize that the Republican Party isn't the revered party that I wanted to be a part of. You know, Dave, I think too, when we look at this next presidential election as important as it is to make sure that Donald Trump never gets near the Oval Office ever again.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had a lot of close relationships with members of Congress. Kevin McGurthy was one of them. He was very close to the administration, the president, not so close with Mark Meadow, so I sort of became the conduit between those three men, McCarthy, Trump, and Meadows. You know, what I'll say about McCarthy, and this rings true about a lot of Republicans. McCurthy on January 6th made, I think, an excellent floor speech about how the Trump was responsible for what happened on January 6th and how the Republican Party needed to move away from that. We needed to be better.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Looking back now, no, absolutely not. But I still had that mindset where he I could help. That gatekeeper. I could help be that person. And I hadn't think too, I had a lot of close relationships with members of Congress still.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the planning and occurrence of the rally on January 6th and the ransacking of the Capitol. So I felt that if the president still, or the former president, to be former president, still needed sound and capable minds around him, I felt that he still would be a stronghold in Republican politics. And in order to prevent something like that happening again, or if there could be people down there to help police the people around him, I felt that I could still fulfill that role well.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are really two reasons that I made the choice to still move down to Florida. And again, I'm not proud of them, but it's part of my history. The first was that, and it's relevant, I think, today also looking forward to 2024, there's this notion that you owe the administration complete fidelity and loyalty. So I was putting a target on my back theoretically by being very outspoken about what happened on January 6th. But I felt that if I backed out of moving to Florida with him, I would also be seen as disloyal. But the second reason this was the more prominent reason was that I had begun to process everything that had happened since the 2020 presidential election. And I had seen the characters that had come into the White House characters like Sidney Powell, Rudy, Giuliani, Mike Flynn, and how dangerous they were and how influential they were.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I felt In many ways, I still do, although now I understand the other side of it too, that it was our job to gate, keep to the president to make sure that he was getting accurate information that could help him carry out the job of the presidency better. So I felt that if he had moments like that, it was because we weren't doing our jobs. We were the people who were ultimately causing that. And then now I see that. And very distinctly recognize that there should be somebody with a temper like that should never be anywhere near our nation's most coveted national security secrets is not a leader on the global stage and is not a leader to the American people.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wasn't entirely unprecedented. I mean, there were many times throughout my tenure working in the West Wing that his volcanic temper would get the best of him and he would either flip the tablecloth or swipe everything off the table or chuck a lunch dish. So that wasn't something that was completely out of the ordinary for me at the time. I now see that as what it is. It's a man with an extremely volcanic and irrational touch.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We want to continue being a constitutional republic and maintain our democratic institutions, we can as a nation survive four years, eight years, 12 years of policy that we don't all agree with. But we can't survive through another presidency of a leader who has shown more fidelity to authoritarian rule than to our own rule of law.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Donald Trump isn't the leader that we needed then, and he's not the leader that we need now moving forward. There are many policies that I don't agree with in the Biden administration. And I think that every president is subjected to making errors of judgment. Donald Trump, that's not a unique concept of Donald Trump just because he's supremely unempathetic and he's not a leader. It's impossible for any president to never make a single mistake, a single mistake. I personally think that the Biden administration has made a lot of policy mistakes. There are a lot of policies that they have passed that I don't agree with. What Joe Biden, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have done is restore hope in leadership for our country”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, when we think about how all those events collapsed into the 2020 presidential election and how he was unwilling to give up his position as the president to a fair and free election that were the American people did elect Joe Biden thinks, at least for me, fell into place and everything began to make sense, especially afterwards too. And sort of tie this up. I don't know if you have a follow-up question to it”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're looking from a bird's eye view. I touched on my perception of leadership earlier, but when we look at Donald Trump, he has many, many character flaws. Again, many of which I was blind to. And I want to call attention to now, and I think that's important to continue doing for all of us. But he is not somebody that leads with strength. He leads with fear and weakness and fear mongering in the people that support him. So whether we look at the pandemic in 2020 or the summer of civil unrest after George Floyd was murdered. Donald Trump didn't lead us through those moments. He wanted to protect his own image and preserve his own image of strength.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wasn't lost on me or many of my colleagues that he is not an empathetic person that Donald Trump likes to prefer an image of strength and that he is undeterred by challenge.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I felt at the time that Mark needed to be the leader, that the president needed, the former president needed to get through the election and to be able to combat the pandemic. And a president is only as good as the people who he is surrounded by. So if I could play any part in that and having him surrounded by good and decent people during that time, I wanted to be part of that. There are many points that I became very disillusioned during that period. My loyalties, infidelities ended up at one point, you know, subconscious and then I became conscious of it where it wasn't necessarily to the American people anymore. It was to Donald Trump and to Mark Meadows.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'll leave it to my former colleagues to answer how they viewed me. Mark empowered me, and I had power because I had proximity to power. I wasn't somebody that was making executive decisions When I took the job with Mark. And it wasn't necessarily an easy decision. I did spend a lot of time thinking about it, which sounds sort of silly looking back on now. But I think back to that time period and we had gone through a tumultuous period through the fall and early winter of 2020, Mark was announced as the chief of staff. We had an election coming up. There were rumblings of a massive pandemic that was about to sweep the nation. I also had been growing a little tired. You know, it was a long fall and I loosely began looking for jobs on Capitol Hill. So when Mark asked me to work for him, I did have to give it a lot of thought and consideration. And I told Mark that I would take the job with him ultimately if we were to come to a mutual understanding that I was taking the job with the White House chief of staff, not chief of staff, Mark Meadows. I could serve Mark well.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think that I think is in some ways wildly underreported about Trump again. This is just my perspective, but he employs the same tactics over and over and over again. And when he really look at what he does, it's Donald Trump plays on fear and his own strength that he has concocted in his mind. And he thinks that if he can project a certain image and people will just fall in line and listen to him. And in some ways that does ring true. The thing about Donald Trump that I had a lot of blind spots to in the past that I'm very hyper aware of now is that Donald Trump has told us who he is for a very long time. He told us who he was during 2016 presidential campaign, the 2020 presidential campaign, and he's continued to tell us who he is every single day after. And I think for people like me, again, I've had the gift of being able to look back and reflect.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But for us, that felt like a big political win. And at that point, I hadn't really hit many points of disillusionment, but I also really became blind to the effects of Trump's rhetoric. Which is really damaging and dangerous. And that's when his rhetoric became very normalized to me. And I became more of the partisan, what I call the parts and slinger than I'd never envisioned myself becoming when I first entered public service.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, everything at that point, if the mark couldn't get a hold of the president himself, he would oftentimes come to me. In terms of the environment, I felt very strongly at the time that the president shouldn't be impeached. And to a degree, I feel that way to this day, put aside what the call to Zelensky was absolutely horrendous. And I will leave it to legal scholars to determine the actual constitutional crisis that that may or may not have invoked. What I remember being concerned about during the first impeachment, which I think rings true today, is that a one-party impeachment rot can also be extremely divisive. And from my perch, I saw that happen and I remember tracking all the Democrats who may vote not to impeach him. And he did end up taking two.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“not one-on-one direct exposure, but it was my job to interface with House Republicans primarily and to track all the impeachment votes. So that's really where I became in constant contact with most House members, but namely the president's, what he would, or Mr. Trung's what he would refer to as his big defenders. Mark Meadows was one of them. Mark and I formed a very close relationship that fall and I became, you know, Mark didn't have many relationships with staffers within the White House. He would oftentimes go directly to the president whenever he needed something. It was during this period where Mark really began to rely on me as the White House conduit to the Oval Office. So Mark would sometimes come meet with the president in quote-unquote secretly or Mark would help organize cabinet room meetings and he would send me lists of members that we should invite and include.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was the first big assignment that I had received and I became the messenger essentially to House Republicans on behalf of the presidents and the impeachment defense team.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Try to form the relationships with members on both sides that the aisle, despite being in a hyperpartisan environment, and there are certain members that I had to work with more because they were friends of the president.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You have to learn a lot about the members both personally and what their district wants and needs. So you have a lot of exposure to direct exposure to members, which I was extremely fortunate to have. But having that early experience of dealing directly with members and knowing them on a more personal level and then eventually being hired, I think it gave me a lot of different suit of strength than it would a lot of other staffers. I can't exactly pinpoint why I rose to the place I did and the speed that I did. I recognize a lot of it was hard work. And I worked very, very hard even through my internship. I would always try to be one of the last people to leave in the first staffers to get there and working legislative affairs too. I mean, there was not many, there were not many tasks that I said no to. But I made a point.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I interned for Stave Scouliers. I primarily worked with his member services team. They are the Ford-facing group of staffers that deal with directly oftentimes with members of Congress.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you can tell a lot about somebody, by the way, they treat their staff and support staff around them. And that goes for, I think, anybody in any industry, how a boss is supposed to lead somebody who is at the top of a hierarchy, whether it's a private company or the Oval Office in the presidency of the United States. Leaders are supposed to encourage their staff. They're supposed to encourage and want better for whoever is under them and better for the country if you're the president. You're not there to weaken people and to hold them under your thumb and scare them into loyalty and support for you. And I think that in my experience, I've had the blessing of working for a lot of principles, either directly or indirectly, that I credit, they give them a lot of credit for how I view leadership today. But I've also worked for a lot of people who either had difficult personalities or who I don't believe are actual leaders. And I think that when we look at content.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have respect for elected officials regardless of party. Ted Cruz was somebody that I found difficult to work, not really even work for because I didn't work directly for him in many ways when I interned, but I found him difficult to work with, especially at the White House. I fell in love with the House of Representatives when I interned for Steve Scalise. Then when I ended up working. So I am a house person by nature too.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Been somebody that was not only in the world, but I kind of was a prime target in many ways for the initial Trump movement. But in sharing my story, I hope to be able to bring awareness to people who maybe were anti-Trump from the starter grew to be anti-Trump, but to help people understand that there aren't a lot of people who are just wildly not informed about what he actually stands for and who he actually is. And if I can help bring that conversation to life a little bit more just to cultivate a community of understanding that we have to overcome the barriers that he has erected for us. I think that's so important when we look forward to this next election.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People that I grew up around, and I could see how proud they were of him and that they felt that passion and that zeal towards Donald Trump. And it was really more at that point, it was the cultural hold towards. And I understood that he was the president that was going to change things for people like my family. I had an internship that summer with Steve Scalise, who was then majority whip. So, you know, things lined up for me at that time and really beginning at that rally that began to catapult me into that world.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and I remember my family being really excited about the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. But it wasn't until the rally, the hundredth day rally that I went to that I really was drawn into the movement. And I look back on that now. And I was with the man I was dating at the time. And until Donald Trump walked out on the stage and I felt, again, it's difficult to explain. I don't know if you've ever been to a Trump rally, but there is an electrifying and magnetism to him. And there's an electrifying feeling at a Trump rally. And I remember he was walking down the catwalk to the podium and everyone just going crazy. And I was, I remember just looking around sort of like it transfixed more on the people at that time than on Donald Trump because I was looking at all these people that I felt I could recognize and I felt I could relate to there.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I worked through my first because I knew that I would want to intern in Washington, but I didn't come from really any family money. My parents lived paycheck to paycheck, which is completely fine. But I knew that when I went to school, I would have to work and work a lot. I remember talking to my professors and knowing that most internships in DC were unpaid. So I had to figure out a way to compensate for the money that I wouldn't be making. So I worked through my freshman year of college and the freshman summer and then sophomore year of college, mid-sophomore year of college is when I began applying to internships on the hill just to situate ourselves in time, followed my sophomore years when Donald Trump was elected president.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lot of my friends at school supported, I remember Barack Obama at the time. So I wasn't. Hyper political. This is really the first time that I had been exposed to party platforms. So, I think just overall, the party platform made sense to me, and I felt that I could relate to it more. But I also wasn't upset when Obama was re-elected. So as I progressed through high school at that point, I became more entrenched with the Republican Party and dug my heels more into the belief system that I had first identified with 2012 presidential election. And I did my best to continue to educate myself on the Republican Party platform because at that point I had a pretty good idea that my trajectory was politics, although I didn't know that much about it. But in saying that too, with the environment that I had grown up in, I wasn't”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was my first year taking advanced US history classes. I had taken history classes before obviously throughout my youth. But that year, I loved my teacher, but we had been assigned four class to watch the first presidential debate. And I remember I was in the basement of the house that we lived in at the time. And I was watching the debate. My mom and my aunt Steph were down there too, but they were off doing something else. I probably playing Farmville or something. I was just completely transfixed with it. And the assignment was just to write like a little short essay about the basic platforms and what happened in the debate. And I went to school the next day and I asked if I could sort of turn it into this case study about the 2012 presidential election. And I still have the binder that I put together. But yeah, I had this binder primarily about Mitt Romney and I just was trans Texas learning as much as I could about the Republican Party platform.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then as we went into DC and we did the walk on the National Mall and I just remember feeling so overwhelmed and overpowered with just the sense of national pride and that I wanted to work there and that I felt that I belonged there. And it was really the only place. And I was, again, I was still young, but that I felt that I really belonged and wanted to be part of. So I think that was my earliest inclination, like, okay, my goal was to get to Washington, D.C. with the 2012 presidential election is sort of when that should trajectory began to solidify for me.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In my adulthood, my uncle Joe was in the Indiana National Guard and was deployed during after 9-11 to Afghanistan. So when he came back from the war, he and my aunt Steph, my mom's sister, moved to Washington, D.C. And I've spent a lot, especially writing the book, a lot of time thinking about that first trip to DC. I remember it so clearly. And we went onto the balcony and I saw the skyline. It was almost like this early sense of a premonition that I belonged there. Like I just remember feeling so at home in DC. I remember looking at the monuments from afar and just thinking the skyline was beautiful.”
2023-12-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 562 — Cassidy Hutchinson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source