Enough

I’m a Democrat and USNavy Veteran, who took the same oath as all who serve, including Cassidy. And no matter which political umbrella we fall under – that oath is not to be taken lightly. Cassidy is serious about her’s, her service to country, her failings and course corrections, feelings of confusion and naiveté. I too was 21 when I took my oath, disillusioned by the grandeur, but never regretted serving my country, as a Democrat, in what would become some of the best years of my life. Now at 62, looking back and reading Cassidy’s words, I feel her sense of pride to serve and hope that she’s doing the right thing for herself and her country. In either service – on The Hill or military – we stand for all citizens of America. Cassidy did the right thing – telling the truth. More people in her position should do and should have done the same. The truth always comes out, in the end. Always. Brava, Cassidy! Job well done!!

Searching for a miracle close to homeAndrew Malekoff ©2023In her recently released memoir “Enough,” Cassidy Hutchinson referred to her grandmother as “a paragon of resilience and grace.” She encouraged me “to search for miracles in the overlooked corners of the world,” Cassidy recalled.Cassidy served as assistant to ex-President Trump’s chief-of-staff Mark Meadows. As she came to her final days working in the White House, she found a miracle close to home.”My grandmother promised that if I learned to be curious and attentive, I could help others see what’s often overlooked,” and that “a single act of courage can reach beyond one’s imagination.”As far as I know, Cassidy’s grandmother was not a trained mental health practitioner. Even so, her advice to her granddaughter rings of a counseling intervention known as the “miracle question.” When a counselor asks a client the miracle question, they build a good story line leading one to imagine how different their life might be if the miracle happens overnight.The story line for Cassidy, to quote Superman, was to find her way back to “truth, justice, and the American way.” Cassidy’s story is about a young woman rediscovering her core values amid the morass of duplicity, chaos, and corruption that enveloped the Trump White House, buttressed by a multitude of illegal schemes to thwart the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the outcome of a free and fair election.Looking back at her decision to testify at the bipartisan Jan. 6 Committee and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth without invoking the fifth amendment, Cassidy stands out as one of the more courageous actors of the hearings. At the same time, seasoned legislators and government officials remained bystanders, fearful of losing personal protection and political advantage.Cassidy is one of the few who has stood above the malevolent gargoyles keeping watch, but doing nothing to protect the Constitution and the Americans they vowed under oath to safeguard. In coming to her decision to fully testify, Cassidy searched her childhood past to better understand the origins of her passion for politics, public service, and the American way – democracy. Emotions were unwelcome in the Trump White House,” Cassidy noted. “It was imperative to turn them off as a means to survive.” She found, though, that she had to turn her emotions back on in order to find her way back home.Fast forward to her final days in the White House, Cassidy came to the realization that her behavior and beliefs did not match up. Cognitive dissonance set in and she struggled with how to reconcile the discrepancy between what she valued and how she was living her life.She struggled mightily until she met two people who were key to her finding her miracle. Republican Senator Liz Cheney and Alexander Butterfield, former deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon, encouraged and inspired her.Fifty years ago, Alex Butterfield revealed during the Watergate hearings of the existence of an audio recording system in the Nixon White House. When Cassidy first learned about Butterfield, he was still kicking at 97-years-old. They connected through mutual acquaintances and soon discovered that they were kindred spirits despite an age gap of 70 years.After testifying, Cassidy downplayed people’s admiration and deep gratitude for her forthrightness: “I did my civic duty. I felt more like an American and didn’t require or deserve any more than a “thank you for your testimony.”Cassidy is an American hero.Where are the others?Hiding in plain sight.Eyes wide shut.

An exceptionally well written memoir and narrative, Enough is a page-turner par excellence that keeps the reader glued from start to finish. I developed a caring for Cassidy at the beginning by learning about her childhood in Pennington, New Jersey with Trump-loving parents, the father sounding emotionally abusive and the mother usually struggling to be as supportive as possible. Her life began its metamorphosis when she began her internship in the White House while still in college, soon assuming roles as an aide to Mark Meadows in which she emanated an uncanny authority, an unusual role for a young woman. Throughout her story, Cassidy related numerous challenges she accepted, despite her trepidation that nearly anyone would feel. Regardless of her fear, she always soldiered on, reminding one of Mark Twain’s quote: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”. The most conspicuous example of this courage, of course, manifested in her wonderful testimony before the January 6 select committee. While Cassidy’s admission to initially having been endeared to Trump was unpleasant, her description of her transformation was not only relieving but inspirational. Consider the possibility that many Trumpers will read this enlightening memoir and learn the salient truth that Trump is a pathological liar and a malignant narcissist who struggled to steal a presidential election. Ms. Hutchinson imparts that she was swayed to embrace the truth and what was right by her values that were taught to her in childhood, and we can all be grateful that they were. As an Uber driver for seven years and a psychologist for 40, I was happy to read on four occasions that Cassidy said she was taking an Uber. In my book, The Uber Psychologist, Enhancing Compassion, I have a subsection, “19 Reasons Not to Vote for Trump” that I shared with passengers during the 2020 election, and I feel Cassidy would enjoy them should she read the book. Certainly I will prepare more for 2024. Occasionally sidebars provide a little levity, and I enjoyed her attorney informing her that the man who just expressed his gratitude to her for her courage was Charles Barkley. How could she know? She was just a 25 year-old hero. More compelling was her education about Alex Butterfield whose integrity and courage from the Nixon administration she emulated by reading his book three times. Cassidy’s disclosures are not without fault. For instance, she was not in favor of the first impeachment when Trump told Zelensky to dig up dirt on Biden if he wanted money that had been appropriated by Congress. I wish I could ask her, “Extorting a foreign president to steal an election, which is unconstitutional is not grounds for impeachment?” Overall, I highly recommend this groundbreaking book. To our country’s entire electorate! Our democracy could be saved in 2024 should they read it.Maverick McGovern

I read this to understand why a very young (22-25) woman would find the 45th president to be an appealing candidate much less work as “chief to the chief to the Chief.” The answer seems particular to her so I didn’t gain insight to Gen Z voters, but hers is obvious. She came from a rural family in NJ who were skeptical of government & medicine (she was a home birth, her dad offered to remove her appendix w/a pocket knife, & none of her serious injuries on farm equipment were ever stitched) and her father was a volatile, screaming, cruel man who liked guns & worshipped The Apprentice. He didn’t see it as a reality TV show full of smoke & mirrors but believed the star was a wildly successful businessman who was teaching business principles. She was anxious all the time trying to be “perfect” to avoid her father’s wrath. Essentially, she grew up in a gun, government-fearing, misogynist culture & lived such a chaotic life that by the time her parents divorced, she equated chaos w/normal.Named for Jacqueline Kennedy (& her brother’s name is Jack) by her mother in recognition of a beautiful strong woman on the political stage, Hutchison has 9/11 & the patriotic flag-waving that followed as early memories. She’s deemed “likeable” & “approachable” & she gets pretty far with those traits. She enjoys history, is inspired by a visit to DC, and decides she wants to work in politics. She studies political science at a regional college in Virginia and successfully gets Capitol Hill summer internships every summer through sheer tenacity & long hours. She lands a job at the White House after graduation & loses her BF due to her long hours devoted to its occupant.Her duties on Capitol Hill & eventually the WH make use of her networking & organizational skills – she has spreadsheets on legislators, their birthdays, families, gives tours, & hands out gifts in a job that seems more suited to an event planner; guys who are her peers get the substantive jobs.At the WH, she is diligent at accomplishing whatever it takes to please her boss & his boss without thinking about what exactly they’re doing. She puts on her pressed clothes every morning (the 45th hates badly dressed women) & smiles her way through the day & very late into the evening staying as her boss’s stand in should the president need anything. The president’s tantrums are just background noise as she photocopies, makes calls, books flights, & liaises with other branches.What’s important to readers and gives her credibility is the almost 24/7 access she had to the administration. As her boss’s “eyes & ears,” she had full access to the administration & traveled everywhere w/him (& usually the president) on Air Force One, Marine One for every kind of trip & witnessed speeches, rallies, natural disasters, fund-raisers firsthand. She knew the press and Secret Service agents. She prepared her boss for every meeting & wrote her private notes afterward. She followed her boss’s lead on COVID (both to please the president & probably because she’d be raised to be skeptical of doctors/medicine) & contracted it herself which kept her at home for 2 weeks. She worried that “they” should be doing more when the president became seriously ill w/COVID & supported staff efforts to finally hospitalize him. She was genuinely sad at the death of the brilliant RBG, but dutiful tracked, tallied, & called on behalf of her successor’s appointment. Through her eyes, we see how loosely documents were handled, meetings were held outside of protocol, and often, she – a 23 yr old “girl” was often the only gatekeeper.It’s not until the latter part of the 2020 presidential campaign that she starts to question whether she’s working for “We, the People” or a man. She’s loyal, but until then, she thought the office & the man had the same goals. After the election, she recognized the change from administration to a Stop The Steal agenda. Some of her colleagues resigned immediately after the election. She’d signed a contract to stay w/the administration to its conclusion so she did. She recounts January 6 in semi-horror as she keeps making phone calls to people she thinks can influence the president. She ultimately realizes there’s a TrumpWorld and a real world.This is written in clear language. Even if one doesn’t follow politics (& I don’t), it’s easy to read. If this were fiction, the heroine would wake up to what’s going on sooner, but it’s not. Her epiphany comes when she’s offered jobs in exchange for a TrumpWorld lawyer & “I can’t recall” after Jan. 21. I didn’t find her journey of equivocation interesting, but I kept reminding myself she’s isolated, young, & hyper-aware that she’s up against a war room of powerful men who could blackball her from ever working again or worse, send her to jail. What turns out to be her guiding star is Bob Woodward’s book about Alexander Butterfield – the Nixon aide who confirmed the existence of the WH taping system to the Congressional investigating Committee for Watergate. She saw parallels, gathered her courage, & testified her full knowledge. She also testified to the Grand Jury in Georgia.Highly recommend for an insider view of the 45th administration by someone idealistic enough to do as she was told until she couldn’t.

Rarely has a young person, in this case a 25-year-old woman, exploded on the national scene with such power, effect and style. That is exactly what happened to Cassidy Hutchinson on account of her riveting testimony at the U.S. House of Representatives January 6 Committee hearing during the summer of 2022.At her nationally televised hearing, she spoke with confidence, eloquence and exactitude as she revealed what she both saw, and did, as the Chief of Staff to the Trump Administration’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Meadows plucked her out of another administration job because she was so good at interacting with Members of Congress. Her new job with Meadows started in April of 2020; the presidential election was in November of 2020. You can see that she jumped into a boiling cauldron, which only got hotter, more intense, and more stressful—it boiled over on January 6. She was there watching from the very inside, from the most advantageous seat, because Meadows was at the very center of everything.In her recently published book, “Enough,” she gives us the most vivid and well-scripted view of exactly what she saw and heard, and in many instances, what she did in those chaotic months leading up to the election, the January 6 riot, the Impeachment trial, and thereafter. We learn that she took many actions on her own initiative under and in accordance with the extensive authority Meadows gave her based on his total trust of her, and on the excellent results she regularly achieved for him, and for the President.It is rare to get this level of a deep, microscopic view inside a presidential administration from someone placed so “inside.” The book is very well written, which we would assume based on her eloquent testimony at the Committee hearing. Her book is a good example of how good she was at her job. And there’s a terrific story she tells in the book as the events which surrounded and defined her unfold at speed and with serious impact on all concerned, especially her.She gives us some background on her early life, mainly her deficient, uncaring father and his painful impact. Her mother was her rock of support. This private part of her life is her history, and it effectively highlights the courage and persistence she developed and exuded to get where she got… deep inside the White House at one of the very top positions, one which had her working there until midnight most nights.Her relationship with Meadows is one of the most interesting components in the story. Trump depended on him a lot, and consequently, Meadows needed to depend on her a lot. He wanted her with him at all times, to be his “eyes and ears.” She filled that job requirement exceptionally well.Meadows shared almost everything with her… until around October and November, when devious individuals were telling the President what he wanted to hear about the election, and planning, sometimes executing, plots and actions which now appear to be illegal. Some of this latter stuff Meadows kept from her—for what reason: protection, embarrassment, legal defense proactivity… ? Only Meadows can say why he kept the potentially illegal stuff away from her. But we will most likely not find out whatever those reasons were, and are, because Meadows refused, and continues to refuse, to speak to her as of their last day on the job, i.e., January 20, 2021, at 11:45 AM. For example, why was Meadows burning classified documents in his office fireplace?She gives us another dimension of just who she is and how she got to this high-level government position. If you only saw and heard her during her January 6 Committee testimony, you would think that she is shy and demure and maybe lacks confidence. That is not so. Many incidents in the story reveal that when she was challenged exercising her authority under Meadows—it was mostly men who tried to challenge her—she pushed back, and hard. She easily verbalized her strength and authority and her position, and if that did not work, she used the levers of power available to her—she had an office next to Meadows, and was mere feet from the Oval Office. But right up to the last minute, she was dedicated to helping the President, and mainly helping Meadows do his job better and more effectively.She finishes up with the legal circus she has been through. Her first attorney, funded by a Trump affiliate, was unsatisfactory in several respects (she could not afford to hire independent counsel). Through an inside referral, she interviewed attorneys with a law firm headquartered in Atlanta but with the D.C. outpost; they clicked immediately, and she had the team she needed to get through the January 6 Committee hearing, as well as whatever else followed. Their first action was to fire the original attorney, who seemed relieved to get off the case due to legal/ethical considerations.This is a terrific, well-written book giving us a true insider view into our government in one of the most debilitating and disturbing episodes in the entire history of the United States. It also showcases a young woman, finding the courage and strength to withstand challenges which are off the Richter scale. One comes away from the book feeling glad to have read it, and happy for the author for getting through successfully.