Former Trump White House aide Cassidy J. Hutchinson voiced her support for U.S. President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential race at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Wednesday.
During the event, moderated by IOP Director Setti D. Warren, Hutchinson said former President Donald Trump “stands for authoritarian rule, not the rule of law,” in reference to the attack of January 6 against the Capitol.
Hutchinson also said the upcoming presidential election was “much bigger than tribal politics.”
While Trump has pledged to fire government employees and reinstate his loyalists to their jobs, this election is about “the survival of our country,” Hutchinson said.
“If we want to continue to hold elections in the future, we must make sure we vote for the candidate who guarantees the survival of our country,” she said. “And that candidate is not Donald Trump.”
Hutchinson said that although she, as a Republican, disagreed with many of Biden’s policies, she still supported him for president because he is “a man of character and decency.”
As political tensions continue to rise in the race, Hutchinson stressed the importance of showing empathy and encouraged more productive conversations.
Hutchinson described her path to the White House as “atypical,” citing an interest in public service despite being “born into a family that was quite skeptical, if not very skeptical and distrustful of the federal government.”
Hutchinson said she attended Trump’s first rally after he took office in 2016, recalling that it was the first moment she felt drawn to him.
“I felt like he was really there to represent the American people, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Hutchinson said.
During his time at the Capitol, Hutchinson developed very close ties with some of Trump’s most powerful allies, including former White House chief of staff Mark R. Meadows, who recruited Hutchinson immediately after his nomination.
“Once I at least entered the ‘inner circle,’ I swore my fealty to the Constitution of the United States,” Hutchinson said.
But, Hutchinson said, she was “not thinking critically” about how she was “becoming more and more loyal to Donald Trump and Mark Meadows.”
In particular, Hutchinson highlighted the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol as a “truly heartbreaking moment.”
Hutchinson said it was troubling not only to hear “the former president’s reluctance to issue a statement and that he enjoyed watching what was happening and had wanted to reach out to his supporters,” but also to hearing “my colleagues also amplify this.”
Citing Jan. 6 as a turning point for her, Hutchinson said it cemented her growing concern about “whether or not I was working for the principles” she had committed to.
Hutchinson, who testified at a 2022 hearing by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, described Jan. 6 as “a stain on our democracy.”
By testifying, Hutchinson said, she hopes to serve as a voice of truth.
“In that moment, I saw that there was an opportunity, hopefully, to find my way back to the right side of history,” she said.
But Hutchinson’s testimony also came under fire after another witness challenged his version of the events involving Trump on January 6. Trump then demanded that she be prosecuted for her testimony.
In an interview with The Crimson after the forum, Hutchinson said Trump’s calls for legal action spoke to his “lack of character” and likened his actions to those of a dictator.
“He’s running on a revenge agenda,” she said. “He is committed to trying to imprison his critics.”
“This is what we see in third world countries,” she added. “This is what we see in dictatorships.”